Some years ago, when Gary Hart was running for president, an astute observer noted that he seemed to be imitating some of John F. Kennedy’s tics and gestures on the stump. I can tell you that Gary Hart was not the only politician of his generation to adopt some of Kennedy’s mannerisms. On The Simpsons, Springfield mayor Diamond Joe Quimby didn’t start out as a caricature of the Kennedys; he started as a caricature of small-time politicians who modeled themselves on JFK.

If you see enough film of him, you can eventually see that much of Kennedy’s speaking style was in imitation of Franklin D. Roosevelt. I suspect Roosevelt borrowed something from Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, or other successful politicians of that era. We all borrow something from the people we admire. The person we become depends, in part, on our choices of from whom we borrow.

When I hear the deep resonant voice of James Earl Jones, I always hear an echo of the great actor Brock Peters, who died today. Peters’ voice could send shivers down my spine. His face could be used in a dictionary to illustrate the word “dignity.”

His most important role was probably Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird. Watch it.