Complex sentence: A son of Robert and Elnora Jones, Robert Earl Jones left school at an early age to become a sharecropper, and later became a prizefighter before making his way (via Chicago) to New York City and a career on stage and in film.
Split into simpler sentences: A son of Robert and Elnora Jones, Robert Earl Jones left school at an early age to become a sharecropper. Jones had to leave school to become a sharecropper, and later he became a prizefighter before making his way, via Chicago to New York City, and a career on stage and in film.