[7][8] Jones made his Broadway debut in the play Sunrise at Campobello (1957) and gained notoriety starring in several productions with Shakespeare in the Park including Othello (1964), Coriolanus (1965), Hamlet (1972), and King Lear (1973).

He also acted in The Man (1972), Claudine (1974), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Sneakers (1992), The Sandlot (1993), The Lion King (1994), and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995).

[15][16] From the age of five, Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Maggie Connolly,[12] on their farm in Dublin, Michigan; they had moved from Mississippi in the Great Migration.

He felt comfortable within the structure of the military environment and enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow cadets in the Pershing Rifles Drill Team and Scabbard and Blade Honor Society.

[35] The play ran only 21 performances,[36] but three months later, in January 1958, Jones created the featured role of Edward the butler in Dore Schary's Sunrise at Campobello at the Cort Theatre.

[39] During a production of The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare in the Park, Stanley Kubrick saw George C. Scott play Shylock and Jones portray the Prince of Morocco.

Kubrick was there initially to cast Scott in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), but then considered Jones saying "I'll take the black one too".

[40][41] Jones would later play a surgeon and Haitian rebel leader in The Comedians, alongside Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Alec Guinness.

As cited by production notes included in the DVD release Sesame Street: Old School 1969–1974, the short that had the greatest impact with test audiences was one showing bald-headed Jones counting slowly to ten.

[23] In 1973, Jones played Hickey on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theater in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh[45] and starred in the title role of William Shakespeare's King Lear opposite Paul Sorvino, René Auberjonois, and Raul Julia at the New York City Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, which was recorded and broadcast in the PBS Great Performances series the following year.

[46] In 1974, Jones played Lennie on Broadway in the 1974 Brooks Atkinson Theatre production of the adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, with Kevin Conway as George and Pamela Blair as Curley's wife.

That same year, he made his debut in his iconic voiceover role as Darth Vader in George Lucas's space opera blockbuster film Star Wars: A New Hope, which he would reprise for the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).

[54] Jones also starred that year in the critically acclaimed TV mini-series sequel Roots: The Next Generations as the older version of author Alex Haley.

[14] In 1987, Jones starred in August Wilson's play Fences as Troy Maxson, a middle aged working class father who struggles to provide for his family.

[13] Beside the Star Wars sequels, Jones was featured in several other box office hits of the 1980s: the action/fantasy film Conan the Barbarian (1982),[23] the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America (1988),[23] and the sports drama/fantasy Field of Dreams (1989)[23] which earned an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination.

[58] Jones appeared in several more successful films during the early-to-mid-1990s, including The Hunt for Red October (1990),[23] Patriot Games (1992),[23] The Sandlot (1993),[13] Clear and Present Danger (1994),[23] and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995).

[62] On July 13, 1993, accompanied by the Morgan State University choir, Jones spoke the U.S. national anthem before the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Baltimore.

[66] In 1994, he performed the role of "Ebenezer Scrooge" alongside Martin Sheen and Robert MacNeil in a public reading of A Christmas Carol at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City, which was broadcast on PBS.

[67][68] Jones guest-starred in many television shows over the years, including for NBC's Law & Order, and Frasier, ABC's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Fox's medical drama House, and CBS' The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men.

"[51] On April 7, 2005, Jones and Leslie Uggams headed the cast in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond, directed by Leonard Foglia and produced by Jeffrey Finn.

[14] In February 2008, he starred on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,[13] directed by Debbie Allen and staged at the Broadhurst Theatre.

In November 2009, James reprised the role of Big Daddy in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London's West End.

[75] In October 2010, Jones returned to the Broadway stage in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy, along with Vanessa Redgrave at the Golden Theatre.

On September 23, 2015, Jones opened in a new revival of The Gin Game opposite Cicely Tyson, at the John Golden Theater, where the play had originally premiered (with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy).

[83][84] In 2015, Jones starred as the Chief Justice Caleb Thorne in the American drama series Agent X alongside actress Sharon Stone, Jeff Hephner, Jamey Sheridan, and others.

[89] In 2019, he reprised his voice role of Mufasa for the CGI remake of The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau, in which he was the only original cast member to do so.

[92][93] Chiwetel Ejiofor, who voiced Mufasa's evil brother Scar in the remake, said that "the comfort of [Jones reprising his role] is going to be very rewarding in taking [the audience] on this journey again.

[115] Vice President Kamala Harris praised Jones, writing that "[He] used his voice to challenge America's thinking on civil rights and race, and he continued to move our nation forward through his art.

"[118] Numerous members of the entertainment industry also paid tribute to Jones including George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barry Jenkins, Spike Lee, Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Courtney B. Vance, and Alec Baldwin.

[134][135][136] In 1985, Jones was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame[137][138] He was also the 1987 First recipient of the National Association for Hearing and Speech Action's Annie Glenn Award.