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STORY: Acclaimed actor James Earl Jones, the voice of Star Wars supervillain Darth Vader, died Monday at the age of 93.

His agent did not cite a cause of death, but said Jones, a longtime diabetic, was surrounded by his family in his last moments.

In interviews, Jones said he loved playing the part of Darth Vader, and of being part of the Star Wars myth:

"When I walk out tonight there will be kids with posters to sign. It doesn't haunt me. I love it. I love that I was a part of that cult."

His deep, booming voice took on a career of its own.

Jones voiced 'Mufasa' in the Lion King, and won a Grammy for best spoken word album, "Great American Documents" in 1977.

But the voice didn't come naturally to Jones.

As a child, he had to overcome a stutter and he even quit speaking because of it, staying mostly silent until high school.

An English teacher got him to speak up, and recite to the class a poem. After that, Jones said he learned to control his stutter and became interested in acting.

Over the decades Jones played many leading Shakespeare roles included Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello.

He received Tonys for stage work in "The Great White Hope" in 1969 and "Fences" in 1987.

And on television, he received Emmys in 1991 for "Gabriel's Fire" and "Heat Wave".

In 2011, he was given an honorary Oscar for "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement".

"Frankly, frankly what the heck else would you call that? An actor's wet dream."

His bass-heavy tones were also heard in dozens of television commercials.

For several years CNN used Jones' authoritative "This is CNN" to introduce its newscasts.