Jones was born in a shack in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931. His father, Robert Earl Jones, had already deserted the family to pursue life as a boxer and, later, an actor.

When Jones was six, his grandparents adopted and raised him on their Michigan farm.

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Jones wrote in his autobiography, Voices and Silences. “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. For me it was a heartbreak, and not long after, I began to stutter.”

A sympathetic high school teacher, Donald Crouch, learned that Jones wrote poetry, and demanded he read one of his poems aloud. He did so faultlessly.

Teacher and student worked together to restore his speech. “I could not get enough of speaking, debating, orating – acting,” he recalled.

At the University of Michigan, he failed a pre-med exam and switched to drama.

In New York, he moved in with his father and enrolled in the American Theatre Wing program. Father and son waxed floors to support themselves while looking for acting jobs.

Stardom came in 1970 with The Great White Hope. Howard Sackler’s play about Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion. In 1972, Jones repeated his role in the movie version.

Jones’ two wives were also actors; Marie Hendricks and later Cecilia Hart (who died in 2016). They had a son, Flynn Earl.

AP

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