STORY: Acclaimed actor James Earl Jones, the voice of Star Wars supervillain Darth Vader, died Monday at the age of 93.

His agent did not provide a cause of death but said Jones, who has long had diabetes, was surrounded by his family in his final moments.

In interviews, Jones said he loved playing the role of Darth Vader and being part of the Star Wars mythos:

“If I go out tonight, there’ll be kids with posters to sign. It doesn’t haunt me. I love it. I love that I was part of that cult.”

His deep, booming voice developed into a career of its own.

Jones provided the voice of ‘Mufasa’ in The Lion King and won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album in 1977, “Great American Documents.”

But Jones didn’t exactly have a natural voice.

As a child he had to overcome a stutter and even stopped talking, remaining mostly silent until high school.

An English teacher made him speak louder and recite a poem in front of the class. After that, Jones said, he learned to control his stutter and became interested in acting.

Over the decades, Jones played many major Shakespearean roles, including Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello.

He received a Tony Award for his stage work in “The Great White Hope” in 1969 and “Fences” in 1987.

And on television, he received Emmys in 1991 for “Gabriel’s Fire” and “Heat Wave.”

In 2011 he received an honorary Oscar for “outstanding distinction for his body of work”.

“Honestly, honestly, what else would you call it? An actor’s wet dream.”

His bass-rich tones were also heard in dozens of television commercials.

For years, CNN used Jones’ authoritative “This is CNN” to introduce its newscasts.