You may know him best for saying, “I am your father!” in The Empire Strikes Back. Did you know James Earl Jones, the strong, deep voice for Darth Vader, spoke to almost nobody but farm animals for eight years?

When Mr. Jones was five, his grandparents moved him from Mississippi to a farm in Michigan. That move turned his life upside-down. Mr. Jones developed a stutter so severe he couldn’t introduce himself to visitors. He mostly communicated in writing.

Mr. Jones wrote a poem called “Ode to a Grapefruit” when he was 14. His teacher, Donald Crouch, told him the poem was so good, the teen couldn’t have written it. Mr. Crouch challenged the young Mr. Jones to say the poem in front of the whole class from memory!

“I got up and recited it word for word, and we were both shocked. But we also realized we had a way for me to regain the power of speech through reading poetry.” Like songs, poems have rhythm. Most stutterers speak clearly when they sing. 

Mr. Jones kept reciting poems. He went on to star in over 60 films and 30 theatre productions. When he reads through a script, Mr. Jones often has to change the wording. If a sentence has more than three words beginning with vowels in a row, he can’t say it. Changing scripts “drives writers crazy.” But he has to cooperate with his own mouth!

You may also remember Mr. Jones as the voice of Mufasa saying, “Remember who you are!” in The Lion King. Remember you belong to God! He delights to speak His truth through you.