People have complimented actor James Earl Jones’s voice in some ways through the years, mostly noting that his booming baritone gave the impression of our collective conscience. And yet such descriptions fail to capture the depth of how deeply he spoke to us, sometimes fluidly, sometimes ominously, but all the time seemingly nearby.

Jones’s voice was like vinyl, or quite the moment between the needle touching the record and the sensation of the music coming out. It didn’t matter if it was R&B or something more upbeat, Jones had the range to encompass it. When he died Monday at 93, I assumed of him because the on-screen father of princes who would change into kings — Akeem in , Simba in , Luke Skywalker in . But I also considered a few of his lesser-known roles and the way he became a central figure in black culture. Because of his willingness to play black heroes and black on a regular basis people, he became a hero to all of us.

Jones played a sanitation employee within the 1974 film, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. It was a movie which may not be made now, because dating a garbage man or a domestic employee with six children will surely be seen as unrealistic. And yet, what’s more real than love at first sight? Than courtship? Than giving every part you have got within the name of affection, even in case you only have dishwashing liquid for bath time or a straightforward record player and two harmless Frisbees? The addition of sugar, honeysuckle and a giant completely happy expression became Jones’s signature, an allegory of the professionalism, seriousness and unmistakable smile he dropped at his craft.

In 1993, nearly 20 years after and lower than a yr before he voiced Mufasa within the animated film, Jones played Earnest Moses in , a concerned citizen whose record collection was rivaled only by his wild wigs. In retrospect, that chutzpah was a measure of the actor’s range. At the film’s climax, because the neighborhood fended off rampant gang activity, Moses brandished his prized record collection, and people black vinyl Frisbees were removed from harmless.

At 6-foot-2, Jones was already larger than life, but his voice made him a tower the ultimate. Making his debut because the voice of Darth Vader in 1977, he’s the dark character most remember, but latest information reveals that Jones was not he paid his due salary. Darth Vader is nothing without his dark voice and haunting breath. I like this franchise and experience the portrayal of Moff Gideon in . Imagine Darth Vader taking off his helmet at the top of the primary trilogy and revealing a face to match that magnificent voice.

Yet his masculinity remained unyielding. How else could one play boxer Jack Johnson, the primary black heavyweight champion, in or Thurgood Marshallfirst black Supreme Court justice? Malcolm X (Jones played the Nation of Islam leader within the 1977 documentary Muhammad Ali) and Paul Robeson (whom he played on Broadway within the 1977-78 season) weren’t beyond Jones’ reach with their radical politics. Jones was not visibly energetic within the civil rights movement, but he said he considers his roles related to racial issues to be his contribution to the fight for civil rightsWith his creativity and kindness he became a job model and representative for lots of us.

Jones once said that Johnson’s story was “more about hubris than race.” What an incredible commentary on a black athlete, let alone black people. Hubris is defined as “excessive pride,” even arrogance. But in a rustic where blacks are treated like second-class residents, how else are you able to rise from the canvas if not by being supremely confident? That’s radical politics, not perfect science. We are a proud nation, and we’re spiritual, because God gives grace to the common-or-garden.

Jones sometimes appeared to speak with a better power. “Remember who you are,” he said from the clouds in . It was a spiritual reminder that completely complemented his son’s redemption story. “The king has returned,” Rafiki said within the movie, which as a baby I assumed was a message to Simba. But with a couple of more years of experience and the freshness of Jones’s departure, I understand that Rafiki was talking about two kings.

It’s incredible—and terrifying—to think that Jones’ story and these stories won’t have happened. He was born in 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi, a baby of the Great Depression and the much more dangerous Jim Crow. When Jones moved to Michigan along with his maternal grandparents at age 5, he became nearly mute from first grade through his freshman yr of highschool due to a painful stutter.

“In Sunday school, I was trying to read my lessons and the kids behind me were falling on the floor laughing,” Jones told The Guardian in 2010. “When I went to school, my stuttering was so severe that I stopped trying to speak correctly.”

He was helped by an English teacher who discovered that he wrote poetry and he told him it was so good that he needed to prove he really wrote it by reciting it out loud in front of the category. He recited his poem without stuttering.

Even when Jones famously recited abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s essay on rage and freedom, , it was clear that he couldn’t be contained by childhood trauma or white supremacy. He couldn’t be pigeonholed, which meant that stereotypes couldn’t contain or define him.

He had the voice of God and the range to play any man. What made him superhuman—that stunning, black baritone construct—made him ours as well: an important black hero and hope.