Sir Alec Guinness CH,
CBE (
2 April 1914 –
5 August 2000) was an
Academy Award and
Tony Award-winning
English actor.
Early life 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 wildly 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. An early influence from afar was
Stan Laurel, whom Guinness admired.
Guinness continued playing
Shakespearean roles throughout his career. In 1937 he played the role of Aumerle in
Richard II and Lorenzo in
The Merchant of Venice under the direction of
John Gielgud. He starred in a 1938 production of
Hamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the
Atlantic. He also appeared as
Romeo in a production of
Romeo and Juliet (1939),
Andrew Aguecheek in
Twelfth Night and Chorus in
Henry V in 1937, both opposite
Laurence Olivier, and Ferdinand in
The Tempest, opposite Gielgud as
Prospero.
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 film adaptation of the play.
Guinness served in the
Royal Navy throughout
World War II, serving first as a seaman in 1941 and being commissioned the following year. 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 and stayed through 1948, playing Abel Drugger in
Ben Jonson's
The Alchemist, the Fool in
King Lear opposite
Laurence Olivier in the title role, DeGuiche in
Cyrano de Bergerac opposite
Ralph Richardson in the title role, and finally starring in an
Old Vic production himself as
Shakespeare's
Richard II. After leaving the
Old Vic, he had a success as the Uninvited Guest in the
Broadway production of
T. S. Eliot's
The Cocktail Party (1950, revived at the
Edinburgh Festival in 1968), but his second attempt at the title role of
Hamlet, this time under his own direction at the
New Theatre (1951), proved a major theatrical disaster.
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
July 13,
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 son of York."
Guinness 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:
Arab leader
Prince Feisal in
Lawrence of Arabia; the title character's half-brother, Bolshevik leader Yevgraf, in
Doctor Zhivago; and Indian mystic Godbole in
A Passage to India. 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,
The Horse's Mouth (1958) in which Guinness played the part of drunken painter Gulley Jimson as well as contributing the screenplay, for which he was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium,
Tunes of Glory (1960),
Damn the Defiant! (1962),
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964),
The Quiller Memorandum (1966),
Scrooge (1970), and the title role in
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) (which he considered his best film performance).
Guinness turned down roles in many well-received films - most notably
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - for ones that paid him better, although he won a
Tony Award for his
Broadway triumph as poet
Dylan Thomas in
Dylan. He followed this success up by playing the title role in
Macbeth opposite
Simone Signoret at the
Royal Court Theatre in 1966, one of the most conspicuous failures of his career.
From the 1970s, Guinness made regular television appearances, including the part of
George Smiley in the serializations of two novels by
John le Carré:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and
Smiley's People. Le Carré was so impressed by Guinness's performance as Smiley that he based his characterization of Smiley in subsequent novels on Guinness. One of his last appearances was in the acclaimed
BBC drama
Eskimo Day.
Guinness received his fifth Oscar nomination for his performance in
Charles Dickens'
Little Dorrit in 1989. He received an honorary
Oscar in 1980 "for advancing the art of screen acting through a host of memorable and distinguished performances."
Career and war service Guinness' role as
Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original
Star Wars trilogy, beginning in 1977, brought him worldwide recognition by 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 deal for two percent of the
gross, which made him very wealthy in later life.
However, Guinness was never happy with being identified with the part, and expressed great dismay at the fan following the
Star Wars trilogy attracted. Nevertheless, in the DVD commentary of
Star Wars: A New Hope, director
George Lucas mentions that Guinness was not happy about the script re-write in which Obi-Wan is killed. Guinness 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 Lucas) have always spoken highly of his courtesy and professionalism on and off the set; he did not let his distaste for the material show to his co-stars. In fact, Lucas credited him with inspiring fellow cast and crew to work harder, saying he was instrumental in helping to complete filming of the movies.
In his autobiography,
Blessings In Disguise, Guinness tells an imaginary interviewer "Blessed be
Star Wars!", while in the final volume of the book
A Positively Final Appearance (1997), he recounts grudgingly giving an autograph to a young fan who claimed to have watched
Star Wars over 100 times, on the condition that the fan promised to stop watching the film, because as Guinness put it "this is going to be an ill effect on your life." The fan was stunned at first, but later thanked him. Guinness grew so tired of modern audiences seeming to remember him only for his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi that he would throw away the fan mail he received from
Star Wars fans, without reading it.
Star Wars Guinness 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.
Guinness consulted Tarot cards for a time, but came to the conclusion that the symbols of the cards mocked Christianity and Christ. He then burned his cards and shortly afterwards converted to Roman Catholicism.
Death In September 1955, Guinness met with the actor
James Dean, then filming
Rebel Without A Cause, who was showing off his new car, a
Porsche 550 Spyder. Guinness said he had a premonition that Dean would die behind its wheel; later that month, Dean was killed in a collision with another car.
Encounter with James Dean Guinness won the
Academy Award as Best Actor in 1957 for his role in
Bridge on the River Kwai. He was nominated in 1958 for his screenplay adapted from
Joyce Cary's novel
The Horse's Mouth and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977. He also received an
Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980.
He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1955, and was
knighted in 1959. He became a
Companion of Honour in 1994 at the age of 80.
He has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 Vine Street.
Awards and honours Guinness wrote three volumes of a bestselling autobiography, beginning with
Blessings in Disguise in 1985, followed by
My Name Escapes Me in 1996, and
A Positively Final Appearance in 1999. His authorised biography was written by his close friend, British novelist
Piers Paul Read. It was published in 2003.
Filmography