February 3, 1910 Robert Earl Jones, stage and film actor and father of James Earl Jones, was born in Senatobia, Mississippi. Jones was a sharecropper and boxer prior to moving to New York City to pursue a career in acting. Jones made his film debut in the 1939 film “Lying Lips” and appeared in more than 20 other films, including “One Potato, Two Potato” (1964), “The Sting” (1973), and “Witness” (1985). On stage, Jones appeared in “The Hasty Heart” (1945), “Infidel Caesar” (1962), “The Gospel at Colonus” (1988), and the 1991 production of “Mule Bone.” Jones was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Black Theater Festival. Jones died September 7, 2006.
