Stage and screen actor James Earl Jones, who won Tony Awards for “The Great White Hope” and “Fences,” and whose majestic basso profundo voice would become internationally recognized as the villainous Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” franchise, has died, his rep confirmed to CBS News. He was 93.

An actor renowned for his theatrical presence in works by Shakespeare, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Anton Chekhov, August Wilson, Athol Fugard and Alfred Uhry, and in such acclaimed films as “Field of Dreams,” Jones would become even more famous for his voice, whether it was as a commercial pitchman, an announcer for CNN, the father of Disney’s animated “Lion King,” or a Dark Lord of the Sith — all the more remarkable given that as a child he suffered a stutter, which continued throughout his life. 

“I stuttered so badly it was embarrassing and very painful,” Jones told CBS’ “Sunday Morning” in 2008.

Jones’ road to overcoming his stutter would lead to a monumental career on Broadway and in Hollywood, with nearly 200 film and TV credits. He broke ground on soap operas (appearing on CBS’ “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light”); worked with such directors as Stanley Kubrick, Franco Zeffirelli, George Lucas, John Sayles and James Ivory; won a Grammy for a spoken word recording; and lent his voice to recordings of works as varied as Lewis Carroll, “Sesame Street,” the King James Bible and “The Simpsons.”

In 2008, when he returned to Broadway to play Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Jones was asked if the stage was an oasis for him. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that; an oasis is a place for survival,” he remarked. “And this is about joy. … It’s a playpen.”

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Harvey Weinstein is hospitalized in New York City after emergency heart surgery, according to the ex-movie mogul’s representatives. 

“At our urging he was rushed to the hospital last night and after examination the medical team decided to perform a procedure,” Arthur Aidala, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, confirmed to CBS News.

Weinstein, 72, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan from the Rikers Island jail complex “due to severe medical conditions,” his publicist Juda Engelmayer and prison consultant Craig Rothfeld told the Associated Press.

“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein had a procedure and surgery on his heart,” the pair stated, declining further comment. 

The development was first reported by ABC News.

The disgraced Hollywood figure is awaiting retrial on rape and sexual assault charges in Manhattan.

After the New York case is finished, Weinstein is to return to California to serve a 16-year sentence for a separate rape conviction. 

He was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 while already serving a 23-year sentence in New York. But his initial 2020 conviction in Manhattan was thrown out this spring by New York’s top court, which found that the judge had unfairly allowed testimony based on allegations outside the realm of the trial.

Weinstein has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone. 

Weinstein has been in and out of Bellevue Hospital since returning to Rikers Island from state prison in April.

He was hospitalized in July for health troubles including COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, his representatives said.

Weinstein became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement, which took root in 2017 when women began to go public with accounts of his alleged behavior.

At the original trial, Weinstein was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actor in 2013. Those allegations will be part of his retrial. 

Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company film studios, was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, producing such Oscar winners as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.”

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.