I didn’t know that the great actor James Earl Jones was One Of Us…
…and had one HELL of a gun collection, at least some of which is now up for auction.
Photo: By © copyright John Mathew Smith 2001, CC BY-SA 2.0
I didn’t know that the great actor James Earl Jones was One Of Us…
…and had one HELL of a gun collection, at least some of which is now up for auction.
Photo: By © copyright John Mathew Smith 2001, CC BY-SA 2.0
Former Lieutenant U.S. Army, post Korea. Ranger qualified.
Damn. Very nice taste in firearms Mr. Jones. Just a wee bit out of my price range though.
Sort the listings low to high. I’m sure you can afford a box of ammo.
Oh yeah, not all Hollyweird types are the other side of the barbed wire. Tom Sellick comes to mind for crucifying rosie o’donnell on her own show, to name one. Both of the Simon & Simon guys are also with us, plus of course Uncle Teddy Nugent. In fact, Mas, you should take in one of his concerts if you can, he really tears it up 🎸
Like so many in Hollywood, he may have been reluctant to speak about his fondness for firearms lest he be ostracized by his friends and working compatriots.
If so, that’s very sad and needs to change.
Always liked him in the movies. Now another reason to like him!
James Earl Jones overcame stuttering as a child to become one of the great movie and TV actors of all time. Darth Vader stutter? What a talent!
I believe Jones’ first movie role was the character Lt. Lothar Zogg, Bombadier on Major Kong’s B52 in the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove. He was very young back then, and so was I at 14 years old. It was only later in life when I watched the movie again that I recognized James Earl Jones role (I should say that I recognized the voice first).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK_NqewPOLQ
Piece of trivia: Stanley Kubrick didn’t tell Slim Pickens (Major Kong) that the movie was satire so that Pickens would play the roll straight, which he did. It made the role even more hilarious. After the premier, Pickens was very upset with Kubrick for keeping him in the dark in order to get him to play the role seriously. He felt pranked.
Yes, Jones’ first movie role.
that’s a good one, and just one more aspect o Kubrick’s genius. Putting one over on a great actor to trick him into playing his role the way Kubric wanted, not how the actor would have it.
Those were some o the best years in cinema. Used to go to see the movies on a regular basis. Not so much any more.
My little town had an old privately owned/operated theatre. Three nights 1st run shows, 3 nights 2nd and 3d run, and Wed night was “Classics Night”. You wanna drugless mindbending high, try three Bergman shows back to back.
I worked at the local radio station so my ticket cost one dollar, show my ID. Good times.
“Widely regarded as the one of greatest stage and screen actors both in his native USA and internationally, James Earl Jones was born on January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi. At an early age, he started to take dramatic lessons to calm himself down. It appeared to work as he has since starred in many films over a 40-year period, beginning with the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).”
Credit imdb.com
I hope that Jones wasn’t a “I support the Second Amendment, but…” gun owners.
Actually I did know (so what?) Anyway he would occasionally show up at the Friends of the NRA event in Poughkeepsie NY, and also occasionally bought guns at a small gun store I frequently went to in East Fishkill NY.
It was weird meeting him. He is a kindly looking, friendly disposition, elderly man of color who opens his mouth and the voice of your childhood nightmare comes out! Darth Vader! Just freaks you out.
The guy sure did seem to like 1911s!
Two L.A.R. Grizzly specimens, one in .45 Winmag and the other .50 AE. Also a carbine “conversion” in .460 Rowland and LOTS of Buffalo Bore ammo. Mr. Jones and I could definitely have been friends. =D
We shall not see his like again.
He was from Arkabutla, Mississippi. Extra points to anyone who already knew where that is.
Tionico wrote:
‘that’s a good one, and just one more aspect o Kubrick’s genius. Putting one over on a great actor to trick him into playing his role the way Kubric wanted, not how the actor would have it.’
James Stewart in an interview told how John Ford told him to watch out for Richard Widmark in ‘Two Rode Together’.
“This one will try always try and steal the scene”
Later he found out Ford had told Widmark the same thing about Stewart. 🙂
I respect anyone who doesn’t want guns. To a lot of people it seems a sensible solution. It isn’t, but try finding that in the media.
What I don’t have respect for is the actors who make a fortune glamourising guns, then think no one should be allowed one.
The only actor I know who was totally sincere was Patrick McGoohan. He refused
to audition for Bond, since Bond was promiscuous (McGoohan was a devout catholic) and Bond readily used his gun. McGoohan would only play parts where the hero used a gun as a last resort.
In reality a genuine hard man. He got his early parts because he was such a good boxer.
He stole the show in Braveheart, showing his tough side with this masterclass in man management:
https://youtu.be/XSoG7m1V6aw?si=qPf-aTUfMCTAq0tY
🙂
njk
njk, thank you for calling up possibly the most memorable and iconic cinematic defenestration. Could be construed as homophobic. Actually not an equal-opportunity event? Sure reminds me of a “rare” double parachute failure, main and reserve. Definitely pre-firearm, though.