James Earl Jones had one of the most recognizable voices in the world, but as a child he was silent for years because he stuttered.

Jones, a prolific actor who voiced Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” died on Monday, September 9, at the age of 93.

Fans who have heard his booming baritone and elegant diction may be surprised to learn that he suffered from a speech impediment from an early age.

“I have no problem talking about my stuttering because it’s just another example of how you can train a weak muscle, and sometimes that muscle becomes a strong muscle,” Jones told KCRA in 1986.

“I was mute from first grade through freshman year of high school – mute because I had simply given up talking.”

He talked to animals, but it was “too embarrassing and painful” to talk to humans, Jones told TODAY in 2001.

After not speaking for eight years, Jones needed a way to express himself, he added, which eventually led to an acting career.

He credited his high school English teacher, Donald Crouch, with getting him talking again. Crouch discovered that Jones wrote poetry and told him it was so good he had to prove he had really written it by reciting it aloud in front of the class.

“And I did, and I didn’t stutter,” Jones said in the TODAY interview. That led him down the path of restoring his speech.

Jones graduated from high school and went on to study at the University of Michigan, where he enjoyed a seventy-year acting career on stage and screen.

But stuttering was always a part of his life.

“You never really get over it, you just learn to deal with it,” the actor told TODAY.

“I still stutter, by the way. I’m not saying I’m cured. I still stutter. I just work with it,” he explained to NPR in 2014.

The famous voice had limits, he told Dick Cavett.

“Because I’ve been stuttering for so long in my developmental years, I can’t have a spontaneous conversation,” Jones said. “I can’t be an emcee, for example, that’s impossible for me. I can’t string ideas and words together very well.”

What causes stuttering?

About 3 million Americans stutter, and up to 10 percent of children will have the speech disorder at some point, though most outgrow it, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. President Biden, for example, has been outspoken about his stutter as a child.

Stuttering most often occurs as children are learning to speak, but the problem can also develop after a stroke, head injury, or other type of brain damage.

The person knows what he wants to say, but speaks in a distorted manner, repeating sounds, syllables or words, the institute notes.

The exact cause is unknown, but stuttering can run in families.

The Stuttering Foundation of America lists Nicole Kidman, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis among the many famous people who have struggled with the speech impediment.

There is no cure, but treatment and therapy can help control the disease.