Profile of Alec Guinness on Famous Like Me

Sir Alec Guinness, KBE, CH (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 Cuffe". 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 Old Vic Theatre in 1936 at the age of 22.

He married the artist, playwright, and actress Merula Salaman, a British Jew, in 1938, and they had a son, Matthew Guinness, born in 1940.

Alec 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.

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 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. It is not clear if their minor-aged son, Matthew (14), was also converted at the same time.

Guinness was also a talented dramatic and character actor. His memorable film appearances included Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and the title role in Hitler: The Last Ten Days. 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. However, he was never happy with being identified with the part. He would throw out any fan mail regarding Star Wars without reading it.

Awards and Honours

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 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.

Guinness died of liver cancer on August 5, 2000 at the age of 86, at Midhurst in West Sussex, and was interred in Petersfield, Hampshire, England. His wife died of cancer 2 months later and is interred with her husband of 62 years.

Filmography

• Evensong (1934)
• Great Expectations (1946)
• Oliver Twist (1948)
• Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
• A Run for Your Money (1949)
• Last Holiday (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)
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• Raise the Titanic (1980)
• 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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