RIP: James Earl Jones, JFK Documentarian
In 1992, the late actor hosted "The JFK Conspiracy," laying bare the causes of President Kennedy's assassination.
In a career that can only be called illustrious, James Earl Jones often took on roles with an activist edge. On Broadway, he played Jack Johnson, the boxing champion of the early 20th century who was persecuted because he was black. In Matewan, John Sayles’ indie drama about West Virginia coal country, Jones played 'Few Clothes' Johnson, a black worker caught up in labor strife.
But one of Jones’ role that I never knew about until Alex Dobbert, JFK Facts podcast master, called it to my attention this week was his hosting of a 1992 documentary called “The JFK Conspiracy.” Watch it here.
Not only does Jones narrate the show, he interviewed key witnesses: Fletcher Prouty, chief of special operations for the Pentagon in 1963, Oleg Nechiperenko, a KGB officer who encountered Oswald in Mexico City shortly before the assassination, Jean Hill, a Dealey Plaza eyewitness, and the forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht.
Jone’s inimitable voice adds authority to a well-researched show that links JFK’s assassination to the Cuban missile crisis and the Watergate affair, a bold thesis supported by lots of evidence that is rarely seen or heard in American mainstream media. Only a man with clout and integrity could have pulled it off.
RIP James Earl Jones.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but James Earl Jones was the bombardier in Strangelove. Slim Pickens was the pilot that rode the bomb down.
Jones was also a pilot in the movie Dr Strangelove!