
Died at 95
male
James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931 – September 9, 2024) was an American actor. He was described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances on stage and screen, and "one of the greatest actors in American history". Over his career, he received three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985. He was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009 and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011. His deep voice has been praised as a "stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas" to his projects.

In 2183, shortly after the events of Mass Effect, the SSV Normandy, while patrolling for geth resistance, is attacked by an unknown vessel, forcing the crew to abandon ship. Shepard pushes Joker into the final escape pod before being blasted into space. After a suit breach, Shepard dies via asphyxiation as their body is pulled into the orbit of a nearby planet. The body is recovered by Cerberus, who begins the "Lazarus Project" with the sole purpose of bringing Shepard back to life. Two years later, Shepard is revived on an operating table and escapes a research station under attack by its security mechs alongside Jacob Taylor and Miranda Lawson. Shepard is brought to meet the Illusive Man, who reveals that entire populations of human colonies have disappeared all over the galaxy. Now working with Cerberus, Shepard is sent to investigate a recently attacked colony and encounters Tali and a contingent of quarians searching for their missing colleague. Clues uncovered by Shepard's team suggest that the Reapers are working by proxy through an insectoid alien race called the Collectors, who have abducted the colonists.
