JAMES EARL JONES | PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

James Earl Jones, the stage, film and television star who died this week at age 93, visited Pittsburgh several times during his lifetime, including making three appearances with the International Poetry Forum — where he was a former honorary board member. 

Known for what The New York Times called “a voice of rolling thunder,” Jones had recounted in several interviews that he used poetry as a way of overcoming a childhood stutter. 

Related: Pittsburgh’s International Poetry Forum Announces First Events in 15 Years

His first appearance with the Poetry Forum was in 1982, when he read the poetry of Charles Péguy alongside the Pittsburgh Oratorio Society for a program “God Speaks,” according to a social media post by the Forum, mourning the death of a “longtime friend.”

During a 2000 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jones recounted his admiration for the Forum’s founder, Samuel Hazo, and for Pittsburgh: “One of the best moments I’ve had with poetry was when I was at [Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside] reading Charles Péguy’s ‘God Speaks’ with a choir. I was never so impressed by anything in my life.”

He returned to Pittsburgh in 1992 for the Forum’s “Exultante: Poems and Songs of Praise and Jubilation” with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and the brass and university choirs of Duquesne University. 

He made his third appearance as a participant in the Forum’s “Turn of the Century Impromptu” alongside Brooke Shields, Vivica Genaux and other national and local poets at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Music Hall.

In that same 2000 interview, Jones said poetry “restored my power of speech.” As a child, he described himself as a “closet poet” because people who read poetry could be considered “a sissy.” 

He was a great admirer of Pittsburgh-born playwright August Wilson and won a Tony for playing the protagonist Troy Maxson in his play “Fences” on Broadway. Jones told the Post-Gazette that he would have loved to have played the character in the film adaptation of “Fences.” It was actor/producer Denzel Washington who ended up playing that part when the 2016 movie was filmed in Pittsburgh.  

About Jones’ last appearance with the Poetry Forum, the Post-Gazette asked whether it bothered him if people were really going to the poetry readings to “bask in the glow of celebrities.”

“You use the power of the voice to frame the message,” he said. “But I don’t know. I’m coming for Brooke Shields myself.”