Departures: Voice of a Hollywood generation

James Earl Jones

Jones, an actor famous for voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, died Sept. 9 at his home in southeast New York. He was 93. Jones portrayed iconic characters like Mufasa in The Lion King, Mr. Mertle in The Sandlot, and King Jaffe Joffer in Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America. Jones also spent considerable time on the stage, performing in Broadway renditions of The Great White Hope and Fences, among others. He also made appearances in popular TV shows like House, Touched by an Angel, and Frasier. He joined a rare cadre of performers to achieve EGOT status, earning two Emmy Awards, one Grammy, one honorary Academy Award, and three Tony Awards. His son, Flynn Earl Jones, is also an actor.

Igor Spassky

A naval engineer and designer responsible for around 200 Soviet and Russian submarines, Spassky died Sept. 3. He was 98. Spassky began work for a submarine design firm in the Soviet Union in 1950, rose quickly through the ranks, and from 1974 onward became the chief of the Rubin Design Bureau. During his more than three-­decade run at the submarine design shop, Spassky led projects to build both diesel-electric and nuclear ballistic missile submarines as well as Oscar I and Oscar II cruise missile submarines. For his efforts, Spassky was honored as a Hero of Socialist Labor and awarded two Orders of Lenin. One of Spassky’s later designs, the K-141 Kursk, sank in 2000 with all hands after an explosion on board.

James Darren

Darren, a multifaceted actor who turned early popularity with teenage girls into a long-­lasting career, died Sept. 2. He was 88. Darren burst into national recognition playing a leading role in the 1959 teen comedy Gidget. Though a relatively unknown actor, film executives entrusted him to sing the film’s title song. Darren rode the resulting wave of fame to record a string of high-charting musical hits. The Philadelphia native then settled into a series of well-­received supporting roles in films like The Guns of Navarone and various Gidget sequels. Darren also found his way into a recurring role on television’s T.J. Hooker and, near the end of his career, as a holographic lounge singer in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Roger Cook

A landscape contractor and television star whose affable on-­screen personality gave many the confidence to engage in home beautification projects, Cook died Aug. 21. He was 70. Cook began his landscaping business based in Massachusetts in 1982 with his wife. The same year, he started appearing on the PBS home improvement show This Old House. By 1988 he became a regular cast member handling landscaping concerns for the show’s project houses. Alongside tradesmen Tom Silva and Richard Trethewey, Cook starred in the spinoff Ask This Old House from 2002 until stepping away in 2020 due to declining health. In 2022, Cook and his colleagues received a lifetime achievement Emmy Award for their work on the PBS show.

Phil Donahue

A pioneer of daytime television who shared his talk show microphone with his audience, Donahue died Aug. 18 at age 88. After a decade climbing the ranks of broadcast media, the Ohio native debuted The Phil Donahue Show in 1967 as daytime talk targeting women in Dayton, Ohio. Possessing a keen sense for the evocative power of controversy, Donahue invited notable atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair as his first guest. The show earned national syndication in 1970 and at its height had nearly 9 million viewers daily. Donahue’s penchant for inviting audience participation and creating controversial guest lists was copied by a bevy of daytime talkers: They eventually eroded his market share and led to the show’s end in 1996.