Alec Guinness Biography, Filmography

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 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.

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. The next year, he played Abel Drugger in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist.

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 son 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), Scrooge (1970), 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. 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.
Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi
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Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi

His role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the immensely successful original Star Wars trilogy 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 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" (however, in the DVD commentary of Star Wars: A New Hope, Lucas mentions that Guinness wasn't happy about the script re-write in which Obi-Wan is killed). 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 always 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 did not let his evident dislike of the material show to his co-stars during filming. In fact, Lucas credited him with inspiring fellow cast and crew to work harder during filming, saying he was instrumental in helping to complete filming of the movies.

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.