James Earl Jones is a phenomenally versatile actor, having achieved outstanding
Shakespearean successes as Caliban, King Lear, Coriolanus, Oberon, and Claudius
(for which he won a Drama Desk Award), as well as triumphs in non-classical
works like The Great White Hope (Tony Award), The Iceman Cometh,
The Cherry Orchard, Paul Robeson, Fences (Tony Award), and On
Golden Pond (Tony nomination). But his regal bearing and singular basso
profundo voice made him a definitive Othello, first essaying the role at
the Manistee Summer Theater in his native Michigan in the late 1950s, and later
performing the jealous Moor at the Delacorte Theatre in New York, Off-Broadway
at the Martinique Theater (Drama Desk Award), the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles
(pictured), the American Shakespeare Theater at Stratford, Connecticut, and
finally for 126 performances on Broadway opposite Christopher Plummer as Iago,
Dianne Wiest as Desdemona, and Kelsey Grammer as Cassio in 1982.
Jones
was the Othello of his generation as assuredly as Paul Robeson was of his, and
the New York Times review of Jones' Broadway performance inevitably drew comparisons
between the two actors. "Mr. Jones always was a big actor even when playing
such small roles as the Prince of Morocco. His voice, as moviegoers know from
the Darth Vader echo chamber, is a booming baritone. Could Robeson have been
more resonant? Mr. Jones's barrel-chested bearing gives him a monarchical presence.
We can envision him conquering kingdoms as well as winning Desdemonas, and when
he begins his pursuit of that incriminating handkerchief, the search soon becomes
an obsession. Between his 'Othellos,' Mr. Jones has played 'King Lear,' and
there is more than a touch of Lear in his final madness, as he brings the world
crashing down on himself."
Jones was offered the opportunity
to immortalize his Othello for television in the BBC series of the entire Shakespeare
canon but British Equity intervened, insisting that a British actor take the
role. This resulted in a hopelessly miscast Anthony Hopkins floundering about
unconvincingly as the Moor instead of giving us a permanent record of Jones
in the role he seemed to be born to play. Jones had his own experience of miscasting in what may be his final Shakespearean role; taking on Benedick at the age of 82 opposite the Beatrice of 76 year old Vanessa Regrave in a critically eviscerated production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic that can be charitably described as "experimental." It was an unfortunate closing chapter to a glorious Shakespearean career.