Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness,
CH,
CBE (
April 2,
1914 –
August 5,
2000) was an
Oscar-winning
English actor who became one of the most versatile and best-loved performers of his generation.
He was born in
London, England, allegedly as
Alec Guinness de Cuffe, although what is written on his birth certificate, which reportedly lacked a father's name, is not known. His mother's maiden name was "Agnes Cuff". She would later marry Alec's stepfather, a mentally ill soldier from the
Anglo-Irish War who was suffering from what would today be known as
Post-traumatic stress disorder. It is rumoured that Guinness' birth father was a wealthy businessman whom he once met.
Guinness first worked writing copy for
advertising before making his debut at the
Albery Theatre in 1936 at the age of 22, playing the role of Osric in
John Gielgud's wildy successful production of
Hamlet. During this time he worked with many actors and actresses who would become his friends and frequent co-stars in the future, including
John Gielgud,
Peggy Ashcroft,
Anthony Quayle, and
Jack Hawkins.
Guinness continued working in Shakespeare throughout his career. In 1937 he played the role of Aumerle in
Richard II, under the direction of
Ralph Richardson. He starred in a 1938 production of
Hamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, but a 1951 performance (again with himself in the title role) proved a major theatrical disaster. In 1939 he starred in a production of
Romeo and Juliet, and also appeared in various productions of
Twelfth Night,
Henry V,
The Merchant of Venice, and
The Tempest at this time. For his work in these plays, Guinness gained a reputation as one of the stage's leading
character actors.
In 1939 he adapted
Charles Dickens' novel
Great Expectations for the stage, playing the part of Herbert Pocket. The play was a success; one of its viewers was a young British film editor named
David Lean, who had Guinness reprise his role in the former's 1946's film adaptation of the play.
He married the artist, playwright, and actress, Merula Salaman, a British Jew, in 1938, and they had a son in 1940,
Matthew Guinness, who later became an actor.
Alec Guinness served in the
Royal Navy throughout
World War II, serving first as a seaman in 1941 and being commissioned the following year. While in the military, Guinness for a while planned on becoming an Anglican priest. He commanded a landing craft taking part in the invasion of
Sicily and
Elba and later ferried supplies to the
Yugoslav partisans. During the war, he appeared in
Terence Rattigan's
West End Play for
Bomber Command,
Flare Path. He returned to the
Old Vic in
1946.
He was initially mainly associated with the
Ealing comedies, and particularly for playing eight different characters in
Kind Hearts and Coronets. Other films from this period included
The Lavender Hill Mob,
The Ladykillers, and
The Man in the White Suit. In 1952, director
Ronald Neame cast Guinness in his first romantic lead role, opposite
Petula Clark in
The Card.
Invited by his friend
Tyrone Guthrie to join in the premier season of the
Stratford Festival of Canada, Guinness lived for a brief time in
Stratford, Ontario. On
13 July,
1953, Guinness spoke the first lines of the first play produced by the festival (
Shakespeare's
Richard III): "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York."
In 1954, during the shooting of the film
Father Brown, he and his wife converted to
Roman Catholicism and became devout regular church-goers for the rest of their lives. Their son Matthew had converted some time earlier.
Guinness was also a talented dramatic and character actor, and won particular acclaim for his work with director
David Lean. After appearing in Lean's
Great Expectations and
Oliver Twist, he was given a starring role (opposite
William Holden) in
Bridge on the River Kwai. For his performance as Colonel Nicholson, the unyielding British POW leader, Guinness won an
Academy Award for
Best Actor. Despite a difficult and often hostile relationship, Lean, referring to Guinness as "my good luck charm", continued to cast Guinness in character roles in his later films:
Lawrence of Arabia (as Arab leader
Prince Feisal),
Doctor Zhivago (as the title character's half-brother, Bolshevik leader Yevgraf), and
A Passage to India (as Indian mystic Godbole). (He was also offered a role in Lean's adaptation of
Ryan's Daughter (1970), but declined.) Other famous roles of this time period included
The Swan (1956) (with
Grace Kelly in her last film role),
Tunes of Glory (1960),
Damn the Defiant! (1962),
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), and the title role in
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) (which he considered his best film performance).
From the 1970s, Guinness made regular television appearances, including the part of
George Smiley in the serialisations of two novels by
John le Carré:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and
Smiley's People. One of his last appearances was in the acclaimed
BBC drama
Eskimo Day.
His role as
Obi-Wan Kenobi in the immensely successful original
Star Wars trilogy brought him worldwide recognition to a new generation. Guinness agreed to take the part on the condition that he would not have to do publicity to promote the film. He was also one of the few cast members who believed that the film would be a box office hit and negotiated a percentage deal that made him very wealthy in later life.
However, he was never happy with being identified with the part, and expressed great dismay at what he perceived to be the obsessive, out-of-touch-with-reality fan following the Star Wars trilogy attracted. Obi-Wan's death was at his request, in order to limit his subsequent role in the series, as he couldn't face saying "those bloody awful lines". He once said in an interview that he "shrivelled up" every time
Star Wars was mentioned to him. However, despite his dislike of the films, fellow cast members
Mark Hamill,
Harrison Ford, and
Carrie Fisher (as well as director
George Lucas) have spoken highly of his courtesy and professionalism on and off the set of the films (including, reportedly, helping Ford find an apartment to live in during the film's shooting in England), and he did not let his evident dislike of the material show to his co-stars.
Sir Alec Guinness died on
August 5,
2000, at the age of 86, from
liver cancer, at
Midhurst in
West Sussex. He had been receiving hospital treatment for
glaucoma, and had recently been diagnosed with
prostate cancer. He was interred in
Petersfield, Hampshire,
England. His widow died of
cancer two months later and is interred with her husband of 62 years.
He won the
Academy Award as Best Actor in 1957 for his role in
Bridge on the River Kwai. He was nominated again in 1958 for his screenplay adapted from
Joyce Cary's novel
The Horse's Mouth. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting actor for his role as
Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977. He also received an
Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievements in
1980.
He was appointed
CBE in 1955, and was
knighted in 1959. He became a
Companion of Honour in 1994 at the age of 80.
He also has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 Vine Street.
Guinness wrote three volumes of bestselling autobiography, beginning with
Blessings in Disguise in 1985, followed by
My Name Escapes Me in
1996, and
A Positively Final Appearance in 1999.
Evensong (1934)
Great Expectations (1946)
Oliver Twist (1948)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
A Run for Your Money (1949)
Last Holiday (1950 film) (1950)
The Mudlark (1950)
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
The Card (1952)
The Square Mile (1953) (short subject) (narrator)
Malta Story (1953)
The Captain's Paradise (1953)
Father Brown (1954)
The Stratford Adventure (1954) (short subject) (narrator)
Rowlandson's England (1955) (short subject) (narrator)
To Paris with Love (1955)
The Prisoner (1955)
The Ladykillers (1955)
The Swan (1956)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
All at Sea (1957)
The Horse's Mouth (1958) (also writer)
Our Man in Havana (
1959)
The Scapegoat (1959)
Tunes of Glory (1960)
A Majority of One (1962)
HMS Defiant (1962)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
Pasternak (1965) (short subject)
Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Hotel Paradiso (1966)
The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
The Comedians in Africa (1967) (short subject)
The Comedians (1967)
Cromwell (1970)
Scrooge (1970)
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973)
Murder by Death (1976)
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) (flashbacks) (stock footage from
A New Hope)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) (TV)
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Raise the Titanic (1980)
Smiley's People (1982) (TV)
Lovesick (1983)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
A Passage to India (1984)
Monsignor Quixote (1985) (TV)
Little Dorrit (1988)
A Handful of Dust (1988)
Kafka (1991)
A Foreign Field (1993)
Mute Witness (1994)
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Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Alec Guinness*
1986 audio interview of Alec Guinness by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio
