Turns out actor James Earl Jones and Shakespeare Theatre Company artistic director Michael Kahn go way back. Jones was in Washington Thursday night for the third installment of Kahn’s “Classic Conversations” series at the Sidney Harman Hall and discussed his various stage roles and storied film career.
“I have to refrain from calling James, Jimmy,” Kahn admitted as he and the actor sat down.”When I first met you, which was a long, long, long time ago, we did a couple of plays together,” Kahn continued. Jones recalled one particularly funny anecdote from the 1960s. “I met you around that time and we did a play called ‘War’ and we opened the night of the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Jones said. “Nobody came.”
Jones also joked about how he got his first big movie break. He appeared in Stanley Kubrick‘s 1964 film “Dr. Strangelove.”
“George C. Scott and I were doing ‘Merchant of Venice’ in Shakespeare in the Park and Stanley Kubrick came to see George because he knew he wanted to hire George as the fool general,” Jones said. “He was resolved that George be the general, but said, ‘I’ll take the black one too,'” he laughed.
