A mountain of a man and a talent, Jones carved out a stunning career on stage and screen.
As a boy, Jones grew up with a severe speech impediment and stutter.
That changed in high school when a teacher named Donald Crouch discovered that Jones liked to write poetry.
He encouraged Jones to read his poetry aloud to the class.
I did and didnt stutter, Jones recalled in a 2001 interview withThe Today Show.
This began a lifelong relationship with the written, and performed, word.
I would like to reschedule.
you’re free to donate my fee.
But I dont feel prepared.
I want to rehearse this.
I want to get my voice where it should be.
So if you wouldnt mind if I could come back tomorrow.
Yet is also a specific tribute to Jones own dedication and sense of craftsmanship.
(When he recorded forReading Rainbow, he was still performingOthelloopposite Christopher Plummers Iago.)
Jones was a man who struggled with finding his voice, and therefore always knew the power of it.
And now countless others always will too.
