

Jones also appeared in several other noted films over the span of his career: Witness, Trading Places, and The Cotton Club. Jones acted mostly in crime movies and dramas after that, with such highlights as Wild River and One Potato, Two Potato. Jones’ career in films started with the leading role of a detective in the 1939 race film Lying Lips. We linked them together by a narrative, and I was that narrator. It was poetic drama, put together by several of his poems.
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Langston Hughes’ aunt, Toy Harper, taught me how to read my first poem: ‘I am a Negro black as the night is black/ Black like the depth of my Africa’ and several other poems. In New York in the 1930s Jones worked with young people on the Works Progress Administration, the largest New Deal agency, through which he met Langston Hughes, who cast him in his 1938 play, Don’t You Want to Be Free? Jones was a living link with the Harlem renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, having worked with Langston Hughes early in his career. Under the name “Battling Bill Stovall”, he was a sparring partner of Joe Louis.Īltogether Jones appeared in more than twenty films, including The Cotton Club (1984) and The Sting (1973). Jones had to leave school to become a sharecropper, and later he became a prizefighter before making his way, via Chicago, to New York City and a career on stage and in film. The most likely date is 1910 as reported by the United States Social Security Administration. Additionally, his date of birth has been variously reported by different sources as between 19. Biographyīorn in Mississippi, the specific location of his birth is unclear as some sources indicate Senatobia, while others suggest nearby Coldwater. He is the father of actor James Earl Jones. One of the first prominent black film stars, he was best known for his leading roles in films such as Lying Lips (1939) and later in his career for supporting roles in blockbusters such as The Sting (1973) and The Cotton Club (1984).

Robert Earl Jones (Febru– September 7, 2006) was an American actor.
