James Earl Jones has performed in over 180 films and TV shows. He has been the voice of CNN and Verizon. He was Darth Vader. He was the Lion King, king Lear, the boxer in The Great White Hope and the bomber in Dr. Strangelove.
Jones also played Barney Hill, a postal worker from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who alleged he was abducted by aliens while driving in the White Mountains in 1961. The movie The UFO Incident includes some of the least convincing aliens on film. They were designed, according to a 1975 article in the National Enquirer, for just $3,000. According to the late Betty Hill (played here by Estelle Parsons), James Earl Jones was a major force behind the making of the TV film, based on the book The Interrupted Journey by John Fuller.
severalIt was a role Jones very much wanted to play, Betty said. The film can be seen online for free and is available in several legit and bootleg copies in various formats. We got our copy on VHS directly from Betty Hill, who had quite a collection of copies taped by friends. In this publicity photo, the Hills are in the office of Dr. Benjamin Simon for the hypnosis session that some believe unlocked their memory of an alien abduction. Barney Hill died in 1969, Betty Hill in 2004, and Mr. Jones in 2024.
(c) J. Dennis Robinson
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