Robert Earl Jones Dies

Actor Robert Earl Jones, a fixture in Broadway shows and movies and the father of actor James Earl Jones, has died.

Jones, 96, died Sept. 7 at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home, according to the home and Dale Olson, his son's agent.

Jones was a third-grade dropout from Senotobia, Miss., who worked as a sharecropper, then became a boxer before arriving in New York City and taking up acting. The poet Langston Hughes cast him in an early role in the Harlem Suitcase Theatre.

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Besides James Earl Jones, Robert Earl Jones is survived by son Matthew Earl Jones and a grandson. Funeral services were private.

Rest In Peace, Robert.