James Earl Jones made huge mistake by accepting £5,000 payment for first Darth Vader role
Star Wars legend James Earl Jones has sadly died at the age of 93, with his representatives confirming that he passed away at his New York home yesterday (9 September).
He'll be remembered for plenty of his work in the world of entertainment, though perhaps none so much as being the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars.
His co-stars have been paying heartfelt tributes to his memory and prodigious talent, with his sonorous voice instantly recognisable to generation after generation.
That voice will carry on, should there be a wish to continue putting Darth Vader on screen, as Jones made a deal to have his voice recreated by AI and the technology was used for Vader's voice in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
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The 2022 series was his final screen credit, and all the way back in 1977 when he first worked on Star Wars he was paid just $7,000 (£5,000).
You might have seen the footage of the original scenes of Darth Vader with David Prowse doing the lines in his own voice.
It wasn't quite the imposing tone for a Sith Lord and George Lucas wanted something else.
James Earl Jones once told the American Film Institute that the role of Vader's voice went to a young man 'born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan who stutters'.
He said: "I lucked out from all these so called handicaps to get a job that paid me $7,000.
"I thought that was good money, and I got to be a voice on a movie. It was great fun to be a part of that."
Jones might have thought it was a good deal at the time, and he's done very well out of hopping on the Star Wars bandwagon early on.
He could have made even more, and his mistake was not taking an offer for a percentage cut of the movie's profits when it was offered as that would ultimately have resulted in him getting paid even more.
A mistake perhaps, but given that he thought $7,000 was 'good money' he was guaranteed to get it's entirely understandable.
He recorded his lines for the original Star Wars in just a few hours and by his own request wasn't in the credits for either it or The Empire Strikes Back as he saw himself as 'just special effects'.
He was credited for Return of the Jedi, and in later re-releases of the earlier films his name was put into the credits.
You've got to remember that back in the day almost nobody knew what Star Wars was or how well it was going to do.
Sir Alec Guinness once told the story that his agent didn't think the film would do very well, so negotiated to get a percentage of the box office take.
It ended up being one of the most financially savvy decisions he ever made as it resulted in him raking in over $100 million (£76 million).
One man who did seem pretty confident in the success of Star Wars was George Lucas, who famously kept hold of the merchandising rights to the franchise and raked in an absolute fortune over the years just from that.
Even if Jones could have made even more money by getting paid differently for Star Wars, saying yes to the job has got to be one of the best decisions he ever made for himself, the film and everyone who watched it.
Joe Harker