Robert Earl Jones

Actor

February 3, 1910 (96 years)

† September 7, 2006

Tate County, Mississippi, USA

Biography

Robert Earl Jones (February 3, 1910 – September 7, 2006), sometimes credited as Earl Jones, was an American actor and professional boxer. One of the first prominent black film stars, Jones was a living link with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, having worked with Langston Hughes early in his career. Jones was best known for his leading roles in films such as Lying Lips (1939) and later in his career for supporting roles in films such as The Sting (1973), Trading Places (1983), The…

Filmography

6.1

Great Performances

Creon

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

7.3

Lou Grant

The trials of a former television station manager turned newspaper city editor, and his journalist staff.

6.3

The Defenders

Joe Dean

The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing.

7.2

Kojak

Judge

A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City.

7.2

Trading Places

Attendant

A snobbish investor and a wily street con-artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.

8.0

The Sting

Luther Coleman

A novice con man teams up with an acknowledged master to avenge the murder of a mutual friend by pulling off the ultimate big con and swindling a fortune from a big-time mobster.

7.1

Witness

Custodian

While protecting an Amish boy—the sole witness to a brutal murder—and his mother, a detective is forced to seek refuge within their community when his own life comes under threat.

6.3

Sleepaway Camp

Ben

Years after a terrible boating accident, Angela is sent to Camp Arawak where a series of bizarre and violent "accidents" begin to claim the lives of various campers.

6.5

The Cotton Club

Stage Door Joe

Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.

8.5

The Sophisticated Gents

Big Ralph Joplin

The 25-year reunion of members of a black athletic-social club brings together nine of its members for the first time to honor their old coach but is marred by a murder investigation involving one of the gents.

7.3

Wild River

Sam Johnson (uncredited)

A young bureaucrat for the Tennessee Valley Authority goes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam. He encounters opposition from the local people, in particular a farmer who objects to his employment (with pay) of local black laborers. Much of the plot revolves around the eviction of a stubborn octogenarian from her home on an island in the river, and the young man's love affair with that woman's widowed granddaughter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.

5.9

Maniac Cop 2

Harry

Undead cop Matt Cordell rises from the grave, and is after the criminals who murdered him in prison.

7.8

Proof of the Man

Wilshire Hayward

When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.

2.3

Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor

Ben (archive footage)

Allison Kramer suffers recurring nightmares and selective amnesia. She returns to camp to discover the truth only to find dark memories coming to life before her very eyes. In her exploration she encounters a sleazy ranger and kindly hunter. Death awaits them, as the secrets of infamous killer Angela Baker are revealed.

6.0

Cockfighter

Buford

A man who trains fighting cocks vows to remain silent until one of his birds wins a championship.

7.3

Cold River

The Trapper

Based on the novel Winterkill, by William Judson, Cold River is the story of an Adirondack guide who takes his young daughter and step-son on a long camping trip in the fall of 1932. When winter strikes unexpectedly early (a natural phenomenon known as a 'winterkill' - so named because the animals are totally unprepared for a sudden, early winter, and many freeze or starve to death), a disastrous turn of events leaves the two children to find their own way home without food, or protection from the elements.

6.8

Odds Against Tomorrow

Jazz Club Patron (uncredited)

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

4.3

Rain Without Thunder

Old Lawyer

In 2042, it’s illegal for women to get abortions. After a girl and her mother are sentenced to life behind bars, a reporter investigates why.

6.9

One Potato, Two Potato

William Richards

Study of interracial marriage in the 1960s. A white divorcée falls in love with and marries an African-American man. When her ex-husband sues for custody of her child, arguing that a mixed household is an improper place to raise the girl, the new husband fights for his parental rights in court, fighting against a judge who represents the prejudices of the era.

7.0

The Displaced Person

Astor

A conscientious but driven Polish refugee disrupts the hierarchy of power on a Georgia farm in the 1940s.