Last week, when I was sitting down to dinner, I read the news about James Earl Jones passing. An absolute icon from my childhood on, even though it was years before I knew anything other than his voice. Darth Vader is truly one of the all-time great movie characters, and embodied by Jones’ voice as much as — perhaps even more than — David Prowse’s physical acting.

Only when I thought back through his filmography, though, did I realize how many more of James’ roles were meaningful to me over the years: The Hunt For Red October (and the other Jack Ryan films), Field of Dreams, Dr. Strangelove, even Conan. Plus a small but very hilarious part in Sneakers. There were also dozens of noteworthy film performances before I was old enough to know them, not to mention Broadway acclaim. And I was too old to have childhood memories of The Lion King, but chalk up another iconic voice performance.

RIP.

.:.

Spoilers, obviously: