a lifelong journey wiki

• Tencent Pictures
• New Classics Media

A Lifelong Journey

• 4 Production Credits
• 5 External Links

Details [ ]

• Title: 人世间 / Ren Shi Jian
• English title: A Lifelong Journey
• Genre: Drama, life, family
• Episodes: 60
• Broadcast network: CCTV
• Broadcast period: 2022

Synopsis [ ]

A story that details the the lives of ordinary civilians amidst the magnanimous changes in Chinese society over the years. At the end of the 1970s, the Zhou family lived in a provincial city in the north. The father, Zhu Zhi Gang, has just participated in the Third Front Movement in Xi Nan. The eldest son, Zhou Bing Yi, responds to national call to become part of the first batch of "educated" youths sent to live and work in the rural areas. The eldest daughter, Zhou Rong, follows her poet husband to the countryside of Guizhou. The youngest son, Zhou Bing Kun, is the only one left at home with their mother.

In the span of 50 years, the Zhou family is swept with the tides of change in China. Zhou Bing Yi enters politics after graduating from university and experiences ups and downs in his career during the drastic reforms. Zhou Rong stays on to teach after receiving her Ph.D. She has a difficult love life and ends up living in France for twelve years. Zhou Bing Kun and Zheng Juan, a beautiful yet misfortunate woman, develop romantic feelings for each other and continue to mature through their own efforts. Relatives and friends in the neighbourhood learn to move forward together. In fulfilling their own missions in life, the Zhou family represents an epic tale about the contemporary Chinese people.

• Lei Jia Yin as Zhou Bing Kun
• Xin Bai Qing as Zhou Bing Yi
• Song Jia as Zhou Rong
• Yin Tao as Zheng Juan
• Ding Yong Dai
• Cheng Tai Shen
• Song Chun Li
• Zhang Kai Li
• Huang Xiao Lei
• Hu Lian Xin
• Wu Xing Jian

Production Credits [ ]

• Original Writing: Ren Shi Jian (人世间) by Liang Xiao Sheng
• Director: Li Lu
• Screenwriter: Wang Hai Ling
• Company: Tencent Pictures, New Classics Media

External Links [ ]

• Baidu Baike
• 1 Jung So Min
• 2 Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

• Cast & crew

A Lifelong Journey

During China's societal changes, the Zhou family sees the father work on a state program, the eldest son join the educated youth, the daughter follow her husband, leaving the youngest son at... Read all During China's societal changes, the Zhou family sees the father work on a state program, the eldest son join the educated youth, the daughter follow her husband, leaving the youngest son at home. During China's societal changes, the Zhou family sees the father work on a state program, the eldest son join the educated youth, the daughter follow her husband, leaving the youngest son at home.

• Daoming Chen
• Taishen Cheng
• 57 wins & 40 nominations

Top cast 21

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

User reviews

• January 28, 2022 (China)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 45 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

Extended Navigation

‘a lifelong journey’: a family saga through china’s past five decades.

A drama focusing on the shifting fortunes of a Chinese family beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, filled with struggle and bittersweet nostalgia, has won over audiences both young and old.

How have the past five decades of momentous change shaped the lives of ordinary Chinese families? That is the focus of the recent TV series A Lifelong Journey (人世间 rén shìjiān), which has been one of the most talked-about shows of the first half of 2022. Scoring a respectable 8.1 out of 10 on the popular ratings platform Douban, it has captured the attention of audiences both young and old.

The series is directed by Lǐ Lù 李路, who is best known for his 2017 anti-corruption hit In the Name of the People . Based on a prize-winning novel of the same name, it chronicles the shifting fortunes of the Zhou family, starting in 1969 with their humble beginnings in a shantytown located in the fictional northeast city of Jichun, where most of the story takes place.

With A Lifelong Journey , Chinese viewers found parallels with their own families’ experiences, from the rustic simplicity that characterized life in the ’70s and early ’80s to a shared bewilderment at the breakneck speed of social change as Reform and Opening transformed the economy.

The drama focuses on the three Zhou siblings — eldest son Zhōu Bǐngyì 周秉义, middle daughter Zhōu Róng 周蓉, and youngest son Zhōu Bǐngkūn 周秉昆 — who begin the story as teenagers sent far from home during the Cultural Revolution.

When the national college entrance exam resumes in 1977, Bingyi and Rong compete with 10 years’ worth of university applicants and earn places at Peking University, launching them into prestigious careers in the Party and academia, respectively. Meanwhile, Bingkun, who never did well at school, represents the everyman (老百姓 lǎobǎixìng) who must tough it out as a blue-collar worker amidst the deindustrialization and economic stagnation gripping northeast China as Reform and Opening kicks into full swing.

Billed as an authentic portrayal of what the past five decades have been like for a laobaixing  family, the drama has received praise from audiences for its down-to-earth style, well-fleshed-out characters, and realistic portrayals of the impact of China’s sweeping social changes at the grassroots level. Readily appealing to a cross-generational audience, the series enjoyed notable resonance among older viewers, who praised its depiction of everyday life in the ’60s and ’70s, with its attention to details like the communal washrooms and coal-fired stoves evoking a bittersweet nostalgia. Times were tough, but everyone was equally poor in a way that forged close and meaningful bonds between neighbors.

However, for some viewers, myself included, , where the drama falls short is pacing. Totaling a whopping 58 episodes, the story noticeably drags in some areas, despite covering a timeline that spans five decades. One reason is that it tends to oscillate between a family drama and a period piece, and is unable to effectively bridge the two genres. In particular, instead of weaving the historical setting more meaningfully into the narrative, the show can veer into melodrama and clichéd character squabbles that feel like missed opportunities.

While the focus of A Lifelong Journey is not on politics, certain themes remain present. For example, perhaps unsurprisingly, the show’s treatment of history hews close to state narratives. Bingyi and Rong’s displacement from home during the Cultural Revolution is depicted as youthful adventures where they discovered themselves, a period that they would look back on nostalgically in later life. Indeed, there is little by way of context as to why they had to leave, or how the Cultural Revolution — which the show implicitly acknowledges as a highly disruptive event that forcibly separated families — came to an end.

Toward the second half of the drama, “red” themes begin to figure increasingly prominently in the story. A key subplot follows Bingyi as he rises through the Party ranks. He epitomizes the model cadre: impeccably upright, and always placing the people’s interest above his own. Almost like a People’s Daily feature in screenplay form, Bingyi’s exploits on-screen are supposed to reflect the Party’s responsible and competent governance.

Anti-corruption is also a recurring motif, with the show going out of its way to emphasize how respectable officials like Bingyi would never use their power for personal purposes, even when doing so might be understandable. When characters attempt to ask for backdoor favors from their Party friends and family members, they are admonished and educated on why their requests are morally wrong.

Given that these politics-heavy subplots do not add much to move the overall story forward, it leaves one to wonder if that screen-time could have been put to better use, or perhaps trimmed down in service of a more concise and focused overall narrative.

As China’s economy takes off and the show’s timeline approaches the present day, the characters’ lives gradually improve, underscored by the shots of glassy skyscrapers and impressive infrastructure. Notably, however, the drama is not characterized by a triumphalist linear progression that one might have expected. Instead, the flavor of A Lifelong Journey is bittersweet: while the characters end up better than where they started, they had to endure their share of dramatic ups and downs along the way.

A Lifelong Journey has been picked up by Disney+, and is slated to stream later this year as part of the platform’s broader bid to feature more international content. Speaking to Variety , Disney’s Asia-Pacific head of content and development said, “There is tremendous appetite globally for high quality Asian content and original stories with great cultural resonance.”

A Lifelong Journey , by touching on the enduring cultural significance of the Chinese family and exploring its evolving dynamics alongside China’s economic and social transformations, certainly fits the bill — even if its rough edges could do with some considerable polishing.

Brian Wu is a student and freelance writer based in Toronto. He likes to write about the politics and culture of contemporary China. @BrianWu25 Read more

Suggested for you

Chinese queer feminists react to ‘Wave Makers,’ the show that sparked Taiwan’s #MeToo movement

Hit Chinese drama shows audiences what a healthy relationship looks like

Mixed reaction for animated adaptation of science-fiction hit ‘The Three-Body Problem’

China’s hottest TV series right now is women-centric, edgy, and surprisingly short

Two male celebrities in China kissed on livestream. Were they coming out or queerbaiting?

Same-sex ‘ships’ on the summer’s hottest talent show in China

Get Premium Access

Business Services

Privacy overview.

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

A Lifelong Journey 人世间

• Drama Title: A Lifelong Journey 人世间
• Origin: China
• Release Date: 2022
• Episodes: 60

A story that details the the lives of ordinary civilians amidst the magnanimous changes in Chinese society over the years. At the end of the 1970s, the Zhou family lived in a provincial city in the north. The father, Zhu Zhi Gang, has just participated in the Third Front Movement in Xi Nan. The eldest son, Zhou Bing Yi, responds to national call to become part of the first batch of "educated" youths sent to live and work in the rural areas. The eldest daughter, Zhou Rong, follows her poet husband to the countryside of Guizhou. The youngest son, Zhou Bing Kun, is the only one left at home with their mother.

In the span of 50 years, the Zhou family is swept with the tides of change in China. Zhou Bing Yi enters politics after graduating from university and experiences ups and downs in his career during the drastic reforms. Zhou Rong stays on to teach after receiving her Ph.D. She has a difficult love life and ends up living in France for twelve years. Zhou Bing Kun and Zheng Juan, a beautiful yet misfortunate woman, develop romantic feelings for each other and continue to mature through their own efforts. Relatives and friends in the neighbourhood learn to move forward together. In fulfilling their own missions in life, the Zhou family represents an epic tale about the contemporary Chinese people.

• Lei Jiayin as Zhou Bing Kun
• Xin Bai Qing as Zhou Bing Yi
• Song Jia as Zhou Rong
• Yin Tao as Zheng Juan

• Community portal
• Current events
• Recent changes
• Random page
• What links here
• Related changes
• Special pages
• Printable version
• Permanent link
• Page information
• View source

A Lifelong Journey OST

From dramawiki.

• Title: 人世间 电视原声大碟 / A Lifelong Journey OST
• Artist: Various Artists
• Language: Chinese
• Release Date: 2022
• Number of Tracks: 13

Please enable JavaScript to pass antispam protection! Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser http://www.enable-javascript.com . Antispam by CleanTalk.

• Movies & TV Shows
• Most Popular
• Leaving Soon
• Descriptive Audio
• Documentary
• Browse Channels

Featured Channels

• Always Funny
• History & Science
• Sci-Fi & Action
• Chills & Thrills
• Food & Home
• Black Entertainment
• Kids & Family
• Nature & Travel
• Anime & Gaming
• International

A Lifelong Journey

• There are no locations currently available for this title

Take Plex everywhere

• Rankings FA
• TV Premiere Calendar
• Coming in 2024
• Latest Reviews

A Lifelong Journey tv series

• Credits 
• Image gallery  [1]

All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders and/or producers/distributors.

• Yongdai Ding
• Xiaolei Huang

• Chuyan Song

• See all credits

All copyrighted material (movie posters, DVD covers, stills, trailers) and trademarks belong to their respective producers and/or distributors.

User history

• China Daily PDF
• China Daily E-paper
• Music&Theater
• Film&TV
• Events&Festivals
• Cultural Exchange
• Film and TV

Record-setting TV series dives into China's changes

A Lifelong Journey , an epic drama chronicling China's unprecedented transformation in over half a century, has earned widespread applause, shattering records and becoming the most-watched TV series on State broadcaster China Media Group in the past five years, according to producers during a recent symposium held in Beijing.

The TV series, consisting of 58 episodes, is adapted from renowned writer Liang Xiaosheng's novel of the same name which won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Prize, one of the country's top honors for local writers.

Starting in late 1960s, the story follows the ups and downs of three siblings in a working-class family in northeastern China, striking a chord with viewers for its details vividly bringing them back to old times.

Interestingly, Liang, regarded as a representative writer of the "educated youth literature" genre, revealed he was originally unwilling to sell the adaptation copyright as he believed it would be difficult to bring the story to life on TV.

However, the turning point emerged after Cheng Wu, vice-president of Tencent and CEO of its subsidiary China Literature, urged producers to convince director Li Lu, a veteran known for the anti-corruption-themed hit In the Name of the People , to helm the project.

Liang has also made his onscreen debut as a presiding judge in one episode featuring a trial that will change the fate of the protagonist.

Liang also praised the cast, which features native actors from northeastern China, as instilling a localized and distinctive flavor to the TV series, which is hard to be rendered merely through literary depictions in a novel.

Li, director and chief producer, said the novel has laid a solid foundation for the adaptation, with its successful building of a group of convincing and relatable characters.

First published in December 2017, the novel — which sold its adaptation copyright to Tencent Pictures in November 2018 before it took the Mao Dun award the following year — shows a wide range of Chinese people from different walks of life, from constructors to start-up founders, to examine the huge influence brought by China's societal changes.

Tie Ning, chairwoman of the China Writers' Association, said the overwhelming popularity of A Lifelong Journey  exemplifies the "intimate bond" between literature and television.

"While taking a retrospective look at history, we could see the mutual influence of literature, film and television to boost and inspire each other, which has shaped a strong bond between writers and filmmakers," she added.

Cheng, a vice-president of Tencent who attended the symposium remotely, said an appealing TV program or film should take a quality literature work as its "starting point".

With popular TV series or movies, the stories that have inspired such screen works will also benefit and see their influence grow even further, thus making it possible to form a franchise, he added.

• Tears and laughter
• Light entertainment
• Stars of tomorrow
• Celebrity competition show airs seventh season
• 'My Hangzhou Stories' wraps up with thirteen global talents shortlisted

The poster for A Lifelong Journey Photo: Courtesy of Tencent Pictures

Chinese mainland netizens launched an online campaign to boycott Hong Kong Television Broadcast (TVB) after the station on ...

A stripped-down Golden Globes will go ahead with no audience or media on Sunday, as the event traditionally ...

China Central Television (CCTV) held a livestreaming event in partnership with local television in Nicaragua on Friday night, ...

• De 40 a 59 episodios

A Lifelong Journey

• Comentarios (0)
• 4 Producción

Detalles [ ]

• Título: 人世间 / Ren Shi Fang
• Título en ingles: A Lifelong Journey
• Género: Drama, Familiar
• Episodios: 58
• Cadena: iQiyi, CCTV-1
• Periodo de emisión: 28-Enero-2022 al 08-Marzo-2022
• Horario: Martes a Domingos
• Banda sonora original: A Lifelong Journey OST

Sinopsis [ ]

A finales de la década de 1970, la familia Zhou vivía en una ciudad provincial del norte. El padre, Zhu Zhi Gang, acababa de participar en el Movimiento del Tercer Frente en Xi'Nan. El hijo mayor, Zhou Bing Yi, responde al llamado nacional para formar parte del primer lote de jóvenes "educados" enviados a vivir y trabajar en las zonas rurales. La hija mayor, Zhou Rong, sigue a su esposo poeta al campo de Guizhou. El hijo menor, Zhou Bing Kun, es el único que queda en casa con su madre.

En el lapso de 50 años, la familia Zhou se ve arrastrada por las mareas de cambio en China. Zhou Bing Yi ingresa a la política después de graduarse de la universidad y experimenta altibajos en su carrera durante las reformas drásticas. Zhou Rong se queda para enseñar después de recibirla. Ph.D. Tiene una vida amorosa difícil y termina viviendo en Francia durante doce años. Zhou Bingkun y Zheng Juan, una mujer hermosa pero desafortunada, desarrollan sentimientos románticos el uno por el otro y continúan madurando a través de sus propios esfuerzos. Los parientes y amigos del vecindario aprenden a avanzar juntos Al cumplir sus propias misiones en la vida, la familia Zhou representa una historia épica sobre el pueblo chino contemporáneo.

Reparto [ ]

Cuadro de relaciones

• Lei Jia Yin como Zhou Bing Kun
• Xin Bai Qing como Zhou Bing Yi
• Song Jia como Zhou Rong
• Yin Tao como Zheng Ju An
• Ding Yong Dai como Zhou Zhi Gang
• Cheng Tai Shen como Feng Hua Cheng
• Sa Ri Na como Li Su Hua
• Song Chun Li como Jin Yue Ji
• Zhang Kai Li como Qu Xiu Zhen
• Feng Lei como Yao Li Song
• Wu Xing Jian como Zhou Nan
• Sui Jun Bo como Hao Dong Mei
• Bai Zhi Di como Ma Shou Chang
• Huang Xiao Lei como Qiao Chun Yan

Producción [ ]

• Escritor original: Liang Xiao Sheng
• Productores: Li Lu
• Director: Li Lu
• Guionista: Wang Hai Ling
• Compañía: Tencent Pictures, New Classics Media

Enlaces [ ]

• Baike Baidu
• Movie Douban
• Weibo Oficial

Galería [ ]

• 1 No Gain No Love
• 2 Love Next Door (2024)

Cronulla centre Kayal Iro's journey from the Cook Islands to a shot at the NRL's Rookie of the Year Award

Kayal Iro is in with a shot of claiming the NRL's Rookie of the Year Award.  ( Getty Images: Ian Hitchcock )

At five years old, Kayal Iro was playing football for the under 10s. 

At 14, he wore football boots for the first time. 

Now, at 24, he might just be the dark horse for the NRL's Rookie of the Year Award.

Iro has impressed this season for the Sharks with his toughness, strength and work rate as he has played 20 games for Craig Fitzgibbon's side, scoring six tries and accumulating nine try assists.

Iro has also cracked 100 metres in every match he has played, and his average run metres per game is second only to Cronulla teammate Jesse Ramien and Dolphins star Herbie Farnworth among centres.

With Lachlan Galvin ineligible due to injury, Iro is locked in a battle with Canberra's Ethan Strange, Manly's Lehi Hopoate and Parramatta's Blaize Talagai for the gong.

Iro has a few years on all of them but he had to grow up fast when it came to footy. 

When you are playing for the Arorangi Bears, the pride of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, there is no other choice.

"Growing up, I was a little fella. I had to play up a grade back home," Iro said.

"They didn't always have all the age groups, so I had to play four or five years up sometimes. 

"I was playing under 10s when I was five or six.

"I'd get smashed but it was alright. Everyone just wants to smash someone.

"There wasn't a lot of structure, just hard footy.

"When I grew up playing for Bears, I'd play with cousins, uncles, everybody. I just tried to outwork the bigger guys."

Iro's journey from the tiny island nation to the bright lights of the NRL, where he'll line up for the Sharks in their semifinal clash against Melbourne on Saturday night, is a remarkable one.

Born in England, where his legendary father Kevin was finishing his playing career with St Helens, Iro moved to Arorangi with his family when he was two.

Kayal Iro has not missed a game for the Sharks since being added to the side for round four.  ( Getty Images: Cameron Spencer  )

The NRL is no stranger to players with Pasifika backgrounds or to players who came of age in the islands, and there is a handful of NRL players who trace their ancestry back to the Cook Islands. 

But Iro is the only one raised on the Cook Islands, a nation so small its entire population of just over 15,000 could fit into AAMI Park on Saturday night and still leave half the stadium empty.

Iro lived there until he moved to New Zealand at 15 to finish school. He looked after his late grandmother and they watched every NRL game together every week, which first sparked the idea that he could play at the top level himself.

It was around that time that he wore football boots in a game for the first time. Not everyone had them in the islands, so to make it fair everyone played without them.

"Growing up, I remember being barefoot, running around. I pretty much raised myself in that cruisy, island life," Iro said.

"There's always kids running around and it feels like everyone's family. Even if you're not related, if they're from your village, they are family."

Iro returns to the Cook Islands whenever he can. His father still lives there and has won awards for his work in ecology and preservation.

The last trip back was in June, during Cronulla's bye week. Whenever he does get back the plan — and the reception — is always the same. There are no airs or graces in Arorangi, just family.

"It's straight to the beach, get some rays, eat the good food, soak up being back home," Iro said.

"Spending time with family is most important, but it's a place where I don't worry about anything. It's home.

"Everybody knows each other, so they just welcome me back like always.

"I know they're happy for me and proud of me and they support me, but there's not a big parade when I come back. It's just coming home."

Just making it from Arorangi to an NRL system was defying the odds, but Iro then had to bide his time before cracking the top level.

He came through the juniors at the Warriors before a stint with Newcastle was cut short due to COVID-19.

After moving back to the Cook Islands for a year, Iro landed at Cronulla in 2021.

A first-grade debut the following year, plus some strong seasons for Newtown in NSW Cup, eventually convinced Fitzgibbon to give him a chance at left centre.

He has not looked back, missing just one game since coming into the team in round four as he makes up for lost time.

"It took time but everyone develops differently and I had time to work on my craft," Iro said.

"I always knew what my goal was, so I just kept working at it. 

"Fitzy gave me a couple of things to work on. 

"I made sure in pre-season that he saw me focus on them and that's got me where I am now.

"As a kid, I always said it was my dream, so it's still surreal that I'm here now."

James Earl Jones, legendary actor known for unmistakable baritone voice, dies at 93

One of the most famous voices of all time has gone silent.

James Earl Jones, whose prodigious acting talent was often overshadowed by his distinctive baritone over a seven-decade career both onstage and on the screen, died Monday, his representative said. He was 93.

A contemporary of Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, Jones didn’t land the same coveted leading roles at a time when there were few to go around for Black actors in Hollywood, but he earned unmatched longevity as a character actor, from his first movie credit in 1964’s “Dr. Strangelove” to his reprisal of his role as King Joffer in the 2021 sequel to “Coming to America.”

“James Earl Jones doesn’t get enough credit for being a path-blazer for actors like Denzel Washington who came after him,” said Rae Dawn Chong, his co-star in the 1986 comedy “Soul Man.”

It was treading the boards of Broadway and beyond where Jones forged his place at the top of the marquee. Of his turn as the title character in the 1964 production of “Othello” in Central Park,  The New York Times gushed : “Mr. Jones commands a full, resonant voice and a supple body, and his jealous rages and frothing frenzy have not only size but also emotional credibility.”

It was, of course, that resonant voice that would eventually become his trademark.

While he earned two Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, an honorary Academy Award and a Grammy over his long career, he may be best remembered for an uncredited role in “Star Wars” — supplying the voice for Darth Vader, which has reverberated far beyond that galaxy far, far away.

“I’m a journeyman,” Jones told “TODAY’s” Al Roker in a 2017 interview. “I wandered into some interesting situations.”

Making his journey all the more remarkable is that one of the most recognizable voices in Hollywood history had to overcome a severe stutter during his childhood in Mississippi and Michigan before he could take the first step.

Jones, born Jan. 17, 1931, in Arkabutla, Mississippi, said he grew up as a shy and quiet child, wary of speaking and drawing attention to his speech impediment. With his father, Robert, a boxer turned actor, having left home to establish a theater career in Chicago, Jones was shipped to his maternal grandparents’ farm in rural Michigan at age 5.

There, the trajectory of his life changed in high school, when an English teacher taught him how to sound out each word carefully. “I [could] now say things that great writers wrote. I would never have thought of it myself,” Jones told “TODAY” years later.

Jones discovered a love of acting at the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1955 after a two-year tour of duty in the Army.

That’s when he moved to New York City, as his father had years earlier, to break into acting. He worked as a janitor part time to pay the bills while he studied at the American Theatre Wing,  according to Biography.

With his booming baritone and stage presence, Jones didn’t have to wait long to get noticed, making his Broadway debut in the late 1950s in the play “Sunrise at Campobello.”

In 1961, he gained acclaim for the U.S. premiere of Jean Genet’s  “The Blacks” at the St. Mark’s Playhouse , which co-starred a cast of then-unknowns, including Cicely Tyson, Maya Angelou and Louis Gossett Jr.

Having reconnected with his father, the younger Jones appeared in several stage productions with him in New York, including “Infidel Caesar” and “Moon on a Rainbow Shawl” in 1962 and “Of Mice and Men” five years later.

The younger Jones became a regular in the Shakespeare in the Park program in 1962, with his lauded performance in “Othello” two years later catapulting him to stardom in the New York theater scene.

The production earned him more than critical accolades: Jones would ultimately marry his Desdemona, co-star Julienne Marie. The marriage, which lasted from 1968 through 1972, caused a mild stir at the time given the era’s racist taboos surrounding interracial marriage.

Being in New York, then also the center of the TV universe, had advantages for a working actor. Jones scored his first Emmy nomination in 1964 for a guest-starring turn in the drama “East Side/West Side.”

But national audiences would get their first exposure to him the same year in a small role in “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

Jones hit the pinnacle of any Broadway veteran’s career with the play “The Great White Hope,” in which he starred as a fictionalized version of the real-life boxer Jack Johnson. His performance earned him the Tony for best actor in a play in 1969, breaking the color barrier of the most important acting awards in theater.

“When he was ‘The Great White Hope,’ it was shortly after [Martin Luther] King’s assassination, and there were riots in the streets of the United States,” said Dominic Taylor, a professor of African American theater at UCLA. “And here is this Black man who wins for this role in which he’s Jack Johnson, basically. I don’t think people today are aware of how earthshaking that was.”

Jones would go on to star in the 1970 cinematic adaptation of the play, a turn that would earn him a Golden Globe and his only Academy Award nomination. Jones would lose the best actor Oscar to George C. Scott (“Patton”).

That early success, however, didn’t seem to translate into many more high-profile film roles in the 1970s, although he did star opposite Diahann Carroll in the 1974 dramedy “Claudine.”

“Hollywood back then only had room for a certain number of Black actors,” said Wilson Morales, the founder and editor of blackfilmandtv.com. “He never really got the big roles compared to Sidney Poitier.

“Almost all the roles that he had over the years, they were largely supporting roles,” Morales said of Jones.

Jones would win a Grammy for best spoken word recording in 1977, an early sign of the recognition for his voice.

His most visible on-screen role may have been playing author Alex Haley in the landmark 1977 television miniseries “Roots,” based on Haley’s family history.

Despite  the estimated 130 million viewers  who tuned in for “Roots,” it would turn out to be just the second-highest-profile gig he booked that year.

Director George Lucas tapped Jones to do some voiceover work for a quirky space opera called “Star Wars” to dub over Darth Vader actor David Prowse’s heavy British accent, made worse by the muffle effect of the mask.

Jones later said he asked to keep his name out of the credits because Prowse did all the work, but such humility wouldn’t keep him from being enshrined as part of the biggest pop culture phenomenon in modern history.

Jones married the actor Cecilia Hart in 1982, the same year he starred opposite budding action star Arnold Schwarzenegger as an evil sorcerer in “Conan the Barbarian.” The marriage would produce a son, Flynn, the same year, and it would last until Hart’s death of ovarian cancer in 2016.

Now a father, Jones continued to work steadily through the 1980s.

Chong remembered the first day she met Jones on the set of “Soul Man,” then intimidated as a girl who grew up with “Star Wars.”

“All the cast was a little afraid of him, not just because he was this towering great of an actor who was Othello in New York and his history,” Chong said. “But in fact, he [turned out to be[ a gentle giant, extremely generous. He’s very kind and soft-spoken.”

Settling into his 50s and past the expiration date for the leading man parts of the era, Jones piled together an impressive run of supporting parts, including roles in “Field of Dreams” (1987), “Matewan” (1987) and “The Hunt for Red October” (1990), a role he would reprise for two sequels.

Perhaps his most famous role of the decade — not counting “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” (1983), of course — was as Eddie Murphy’s father in the 1988 comedy “Coming to America.”

“You have to remember ‘Coming to America’ was the biggest Black film of its time,” Morales said. “It was the ‘Black Panther’ of the era.”

He also kept one foot on the boards, earning his second Tony award in 1987 for August Wilson’s “Fences” — a role that Denzel Washington would play in a movie version 29 years later.

In 1990, Jones was cast as the lead in the TV drama “Gabriel’s Fire,” the type of signature role that might have been better appreciated had the series run on a premium cable network two decades later. At the time, however, TV execs considered the material too dark and canceled the show after one season.

Show co-creator Jacqueline Zambrano remembered being called to meet with Jones about a script during a break in shooting. In most cases, that meant the star would have diva-like demands for rewrites. “I sat down and immediately opened my notebook and I had my pen poised,” Zambrano said. “He started talking about a particular scene and asking me questions. Then we went on to another scene, and, you know, we talked as long as we could until they were ready for him on set.

“We both left, and I looked down at my notebook, and I had nothing written down. He didn’t have any notes. He didn’t want to tell me, ‘I want to fix this.’ He just wanted to understand the text. He just wanted to understand the character better.”

Jones shined enough in that limited time to earn his first prime-time Emmy for outstanding lead actor. (He won a second Emmy that night for his supporting turn in the TV movie “Heat Wave,” about the 1965 Watts race riots.)

In 1994, Jones lent his voice as Mufasa in Disney’s animated blockbuster “The Lion King.” He would return to the role in the live-action version 25 years later, the only actor from the original voice cast to return.

Over the ensuing three decades, Jones continued to work continuously — even after he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1995. He racked up Emmy nominations with guest-starring appearances on “Picket Fences,” “Under One Roof,” “Frasier” and “Everwood.” On Broadway, he notched two more Tony nominations — for a 2005 production of “On Golden Pond” and for a revival of Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man” seven years later.

In 2011, Jones was awarded an honorary Academy Award for his career as a whole. That he never won an Oscar for a specific movie role, denying him the coveted EGOT, is a lingering symbol of just how much he was underappreciated over a prolific and profound career.

Taylor, the UCLA professor, always includes a clip of Jones in the 1987 production of “Fences” in his master class on acting.

“He was a gargantuan presence but such a fine, precise, attuned actor onstage,” Taylor said. “It was beautiful to watch him work.”

CORRECTION (Sept. 10, 2024, 10:25 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the name of “The Lion King” character. It was Mufasa, not Mustafa.

Ethan Sacks writes for NBCNews.com.