SAG to Honor James Earl Jones with Life Achievement Award

Variety is reporting that actor James Earl Jones will be receiving this year's life achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild.

Alan Rosenberg from SAG said, "James Earl Jones' distinguished career on stage, in film, on television, in commercials and as a vocal presence without peer commands our admiration and respect. His long and quiet devotion to advancing literacy, the arts and humanities on a national and local scale deserves our appreciation. It is our honor to bestow the Guild’s highest tribute on this extraordinary actor."

Well known for his film and television appearances, James Earl Jones’ acting career is firmly rooted in the theater.  He was part of the historic company of Jean Genet’s The Blacks, which incubated a generation of future black stars, and his long association with Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival saw him in classical plays including Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear. Awards for his theater work include Tony Awards for the Broadway productions of The Great White Hope and Fences, a Tony Award nomination for On Golden Pond, and Obie Awards for Clandestine on the Morning Line, The Apple, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and Baal, a Theatre World Award for Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Fences. Additional theater credits include Paul Robeson, The Iceman Cometh,Of Mice and Men and seven different productions in the title role of Othello. He recently starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway.

He will receive the awards during the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 25.

Photo Credit Mark Rupp