James Earl Jones Made Just $7,000 as Darth Vader in First Star Wars. Back Then, 'I Thought That Was Good Money'

James Earl Jones’ most iconic voice role earned the veteran actor surprisingly little in 1977.

Jones, who died on Monday, Sept. 9 at 93, voiced Darth Vader in the original Star Wars film, playing a major role in making the Dark Lord of the Sith one of Hollywood’s most infamous villains. But his contribution to the part didn’t come until after the cameras finished rolling, when writer/director George Lucas realized the voice of the late David Prowse, who wore the costume on set, wasn’t exactly what he was looking for.

“George wanted, pardon the expression, a dark voice. So he hires a guy born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, who stutters. And that’s the voice. That’s me,” Jones said in an interview for the American Film Institute in 2009. “I lucked out, from all these so-called handicaps, for a job that paid $7,000! And I thought that was good money. And I got to be a voice on a movie.”

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In 1995, Jones told Conan O’Brien it took him only two and a half hours to record Vader’s dialogue for the first Star Wars movie, later retitled Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. Jones also told O'Brien that Orson Welles was Lucas' first choice to voice Vader, but he thought Welles' voice would be too recognizable.

“We didn’t know what we had,” Jones told O’Brien. “In the second episode, we spent a whole day trying to figure out what we did right.” 

When it came time to make Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas, 80, brought Jones back to voice Vader. This time, Jones considered doing something a little different, but Lucas reminded Jones that if something’s not broken, you don’t fix it.

“He said, ‘We don’t know what we did right, so let’s just try what we did.’ Naturally, I wanted to make Darth Vader more interesting, more subtle, more psychologically oriented,” Jones told the AFI of Lucas. “And he said, ‘No, no. What we’re finding out is you need to keep his voice on a very narrow band of inflection because he ain’t human, really.' ”

"If he gets too expressive, he seems too human," Jones told O'Brien. That would explain why Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) believed Vader was "more machine now than man."

The Empire Strikes Back also featured Jones' most famous line of dialogue: "No, I am your father." In the 2004 documentary Star Wars: Empire of Dreams, Jones recalled thinking this would be a lie.

"I said to myself, 'He's lying. I wonder how they're going to play that lie out,' " Jones said.

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Jones went uncredited for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, and it wasn’t until 1983’s Star Wars - Episode VI: Return to the Jedi that his name appeared in the credits. He continued voicing the character for television shows, video games and movies.

Darth Vader was just one of countless memorable roles in Jones’ career. He also voiced Mufasa in Disney’s The Lion King and portrayed Terence Mann in Field of Dreams. Jones earned an Oscar nomination for The Great White Hope (1970) and received an honorary Oscar in 2012. Jones also won three Tony Awards, a Grammy Award and three Emmy Awards, making him a member of the EGOT club.

Jones died at his home in Dutchess County, New York, his agent confirmed to PEOPLE. He is survived by his son Flynn Earl Jones. His wife Cecilia Hart died in October 2016.