Everyone knows James Earl Jones is the indelible voice of Darth Vader, one of the most recognizable of all movie villains; but he’s also the voice of democracy in my favorite recording of Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.” No one delivers “of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, and for the PEOPLE” like Jones. I’ll be thinking of him when I pull the lever, or whatever the hell they’ll have us do now, this November.

In “Field of Dreams,” he plays a character who’s not even in the book upon which it’s based. (That would be “Shoeless Joe,” by W.P. Kinsella; believe it or not, in the book – which for me lacks the resonance of the movie – the character is J.D. Salinger!)

Jones steals home and steals the movie here:

A great voice and a great loss. R.I.P.