When I was six years old, I watched an R-rated movie with my parents about an African prince that flew to America on his 21st birthday to find his true bride to be, even though his father, the King, forbade him to do so and wanted him to go through with the arranged marriage he was already entered into.

Yep, the first movie I ever saw James Earl Jones in was Coming to America. Too young for me at the time? Maybe, but as long as I didn’t repeat any of the bad language I heard in the movie, I was okay to watch it, along with a smattering of other R-rated films here and there.

Two years later, my grandmother introduced me to The Empire Strikes Back and I knew instantly that the villain with the big helmet and black cape was the same man that played King Jaffe Joffer, ruler of Zamunda. The voice was unmistakably iconic, even with electronic enhancement.

Four years after that, my family and I all heard that same iconic voice at the AMC Theater in Livonia when we went to see The Lion King. I was even clever enough to note that he had been reunited with The Queen from Coming to America since Madge Sinclair, the actress that played that role, was also Sarabi, Mufasa’s queen.

As I got older, I saw some of the more serious roles that James Earl Jones played, including James Greer from The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, the villainous cult leader Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian, and Terence Mann from Field of Dreams. I even saw some of his earlier work as Lt. Lothar Zogg in Dr. Strangelove and Joshua Burke in A Piece of the Action.

But hands down one of my favorite underrated roles he played was Mr. Moses in The Meteor Man, the elder jazz loving neighbor to Robert Townsend’s Jefferson Reed who personified the fear of gang violence in his community, only to eventually stand up to that fear and help his community battle the Golden Lords in the greatest cult classic black superhero movie to date.

There are so many credits in the career of James Earl Jones through both movies and television, including guest spots on sitcoms like Frasier, The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory, a chilling portrayal as an African dictator that tangled with Hugh Laurie’s titular character in the sixth season of House, and even an appearance on the very early broadcast days of Sesame Street.

To say that his presence on screen made an indelible mark on multiple generations would be an understatement, and he had the power to do it just with his voice, as I was strongly reminded in 2016 when Jim Harbaugh, the football head coach at The University of Michigan at the time, asked him to record a powerful voiceover track for a hype video that would be played before home games at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, since Jones was after all, a Michigan graduate, Class of 1955.

Sometimes when we lose great people it hurts more than others, even if we knew it was inevitable. Indeed, the day that James Earl Jones would leave us was one of the ones I dreaded the most for years because of the mark he made on me, my family and my friends over the decades as an incredible talent. There is no question that the world is less than it was when he was still around, even as he reprised his role as King Jaffe Joffer in Coming 2 America a few years back.

No matter how much we will miss him, there is no question that his impact and career is immortalized, and all of us has our favorite role or roles that he played. Whether it was revealing the truth to Luke Skywalker, giving comedic advice to Prince Akeem, or telling his son Simba to remember him, we will never forget the presence, wisdom and gravitas of one of the greatest actors of all time and the impact he had on Hollywood itself.

Rest in power, James Earl Jones. We are eternally grateful to have experienced your work.