James Earl Jones, a versatile and award-winning American actor known for his deep voice that brought Darth Vader to life in “Star Wars,” has died at 93, his representatives said Monday.

Jones, who was born in segregated Mississippi in 1931, overcame a childhood stutter that made him barely speak at times. “Stuttering is painful. In Sunday school, I’d try to read my lessons, and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter,” he told the Daily Mail in 2010. Reciting his own poetry helped him control his voice, which later became iconic as Darth Vader, although he did not physically play the character. In “The Empire Strikes Back,” Jones voiced the famous line, “I am your father,” in a twist that became legendary in cinema.

He won three Tony Awards, two Emmys, a Grammy, and an honorary Oscar, and was only the second Black man nominated for an Academy Award for best actor in 1971, following Sidney Poitier. Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958 and later had the Cort Theatre renamed in his honor in 2022. Known for playing iconic Shakespeare roles and the works of August Wilson, Jones embodied the dignity and power of African American men on stage.