Sir Alec Guinness ( born Alec Guinness de Cuffe ; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000 ) was an english actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets ( 1949 ), in which he played nine different characters, The Lavender Hill Mob ( 1951 ), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination, and The Ladykillers ( 1955 ). He collaborated six times with conductor David Lean : Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations ( 1946 ), Fagin in Oliver Twist ( 1948 ), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai ( 1957 ), for which he won both the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia ( 1962 ), General Yevgraf Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago ( 1965 ), and Professor Godbole in A Passage to India ( 1984 ). In 1970 he played Jacob Marley ‘s ghost in Ronald Neame ‘s Scrooge. He besides portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas ‘s master Star Wars trilogy ; for the original 1977 film, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the fiftieth Academy Awards. Guinness began his stage career in 1934. Two years subsequently, at the old age of 22, he played the function of Osric in Hamlet in the West end and joined the Old Vic. He continued to play shakespearian roles throughout his career. He was one of the greatest british actors, along with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, who made the conversion from theater to films after the second World War. Guinness served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the war and commanded a land craft during the invasion of Sicily and Elba. During the war he was granted leave to appear in the stage play Flare Path about RAF Bomber Command.
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Guinness won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Tony Award. In 1959 he was knighted by Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a asterisk on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the Academy Honorary Award for life accomplishment in 1980 and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 1989. Guinness appeared in nine films that featured in the BFI ‘s 100 greatest british films of the twentieth hundred, which included five of Lean ‘s films .
early life [edit ]
Guinness was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe at 155 Lauderdale Mansions South, [ 1 ] Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale in London. [ 2 ] His mother ‘s inaugural name was Agnes Cuff, born on 8 December 1890 to Edward Cuff and Mary Ann Benfield. On Guinness ‘s birth certificate, his mother ‘s appoint is given as Agnes de Cuffe ; the baby ‘s name ( where beginning names entirely are placed ) is given as Alec Guinness, and there are no details for the beget. [ 3 ] The identity of Guinness ‘s father has never been officially confirmed. [ 4 ] From 1875, under English law, when the parturition of an bastard child was registered, the father ‘s identify could be entered on the certificate only if he were award and gave his accept. Guinness himself believed that his church father was a scottish banker, Andrew Geddes ( 1861–1928 ), who paid for Guinness ‘s boarding-school education at Pembroke Lodge, in Southborne, and Roborough, in Eastbourne. Geddes occasionally visited Guinness and his mother, posing as an uncle. Guinness ‘s beget subsequently had a three-year marriage to a scottish army captain named Stiven, whose behavior was frequently erratic or evening fierce. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]
early career [edit ]
Guinness first worked writing advertising transcript. His first job in the field was on his twentieth birthday ( 2 April 1934 ), while he was a student at the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art, in the fun Libel, which opened at the old King ‘s Theatre, Hammersmith, and then transferred to the West End ’ second Playhouse, where his condition was raised from a nonspeaking to understudying two lines, and his wage increased to £1 a week. [ 9 ] He appeared at the New Theatre in 1936 at the age of 22, playing the function of Osric in John Gielgud ‘s successful output of Hamlet. besides in 1936, Guinness signed on with the Old Vic, where he was cast in a serial of authoritative roles. [ 11 ] In the late 1930s, he took classes at the London Theatre Studio. [ 12 ] In 1939, he took over for Michael Redgrave as Charleston in a road-show output of Robert Ardrey ‘s Thunder Rock. [ 13 ] At the Old Vic, Guinness worked with many actors and actresses who would become his friends and frequent co-stars in the future, including Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Anthony Quayle, and Jack Hawkins. An early on influence was film star Stan Laurel, whom Guinness admired. [ 14 ] Guinness continued playing Shakespearean roles throughout his career. In 1937, he played Aumerle in Richard II and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice under the direction of John Gielgud. He starred in a 1938 product of Hamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. [ 11 ] He besides appeared as Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet ( 1939 ), Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and as Exeter in Henry V in 1937, both face-to-face Laurence Olivier, and Ferdinand in The Tempest, opposite Gielgud as Prospero. In 1939, he adapted Charles Dickens ‘s novel Great Expectations for the stagecoach, playing Herbert Pocket. The fun was a success. One of its viewers was a young british film editor program, David Lean, who would late have Guinness reprise his function in Lean ‘s 1946 film adaptation of the dally. [ 15 ]
second World War [edit ]
Guinness served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the irregular World War, initially as a seaman in 1941, before receiving a deputation as a irregular Sub-lieutenant on 30 April 1942 and a promotion to Temporary Lieutenant the be year. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] Guinness then commanded a bring craft at the Allied invasion of Sicily, and late ferry supplies and agents to the Yugoslav partisans in the eastern Mediterranean theater. [ 19 ] During the war, he was granted leave to appear in the Broadway production of Terence Rattigan ‘s turn, Flare Path, about RAF Bomber Command, with Guinness playing the function of Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham. [ 20 ]
Postwar stage career [edit ]
Guinness returned to the Old Vic in 1946 and stayed until 1948, playing Abel Drugger in Ben Jonson ‘s The Alchemist, the Fool in King Lear opposite Laurence Olivier in the deed character, DeGuiche in Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Ralph Richardson in the title role, and finally starring in an Old Vic production as Shakespeare ‘s Richard II. After leaving the Old Vic, he played Eric Birling in J. B. Priestley ‘s An Inspector Calls at the New Theatre in October 1946. He played the uninvited Guest in the Broadway production of T. S. Eliot ‘s The Cocktail Party ( 1950, revived at the Edinburgh Festival in 1968 ). He played Hamlet under his own steering at the New Theatre in the West end in 1951. [ 21 ] Invited by his friend Tyrone Guthrie to join 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 brilliant summer by this sun of York. ” [ 22 ] [ 23 ] Guinness won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance as Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in Dylan. He future played the entitle function in Macbeth opposite Simone Signoret at the Royal Court Theatre in 1966. Guinness made his final stage operation at the Comedy Theatre in the West end on 30 May 1989, in the free rein A Walk in the Woods. In all, between 2 April 1934 and 30 May 1989, he played 77 parts in the field. [ 25 ]
Film career [edit ]
Guinness made his speaking debut in film in the drama Great Expectations ( 1946 ). however, he was initially good associated chiefly with the Ealing Comedies, and peculiarly for playing nine characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets ( 1949 ). [ 26 ] early films from this period included The Lavender Hill Mob ( 1951 ), The Man in the White Suit ( 1951 ) and The Ladykillers ( 1955 ), with all three ranked among the Best british films. [ 27 ] In 1950 he portrayed nineteenth century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in The Mudlark, which included delivering an uninterrupted seven hour lecture in Parliament. [ 28 ] In 1952, director Ronald Neame cast Guinness in his first quixotic tip function, reverse Petula Clark in The Card. In 1951, exhibitors voted him the most popular british star. [ 29 ] Guinness was idolised by Peter Sellers —who himself would become celebrated for inhabiting a diverseness of characters in a film—with Sellers ‘s first major film function starring alongside his idol in The Ladykillers. [ 30 ] Guinness ‘s other noteworthy film roles of this period included The Swan ( 1956 ) with Grace Kelly, in her penult film function ; The Horse’s Mouth ( 1958 ), in which Guinness played the separate of bibulous painter Gulley Jimson, and for which he besides wrote the screenplay, which was nominated for an Academy Award ; the lead in Carol Reed ‘s Our Man in Havana ( 1959 ) ; Marcus Aurelius in The Fall of the Roman Empire ( 1964 ) ; The Quiller Memorandum ( 1966 ) ; Marley ‘s Ghost in Scrooge ( 1970 ) ; Charles I in Cromwell ( 1970 ) ; Pope Innocent III in Franco Zeffirelli ‘s Brother Sun, Sister Moon ( 1972 ) ; and the title role in Hitler: The Last Ten Days ( 1973 ), which he considered his best film performance, though critics disagreed. [ 31 ] Another function which is sometimes referred to as one which he considered his best, and is so considered by many critics, is that of Major Jock Sinclair in Tunes of Glory ( 1960 ). Guinness besides played the character of Jamessir Bensonmum, the blind butler, in the 1976 Neil Simon film Murder by Death .
David Lean [edit ]
Guinness won especial acclaim for his exploit with director David Lean, which nowadays is his most critically applaud work. After appearing in Lean ‘s Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, he was given a starring role face-to-face William Holden in The Bridge on the River Kwai. For his performance as Colonel Nicholson, the dogged british POW commanding officer, Guinness won an Academy Award for Best Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Despite a unmanageable and frequently hostile kinship, Lean, referring to Guinness as “ my good luck charm ”, continued to cast Guinness in character roles in his late films : arabian drawing card Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia ; the title fictional character ‘s stepbrother, Bolshevik drawing card Yevgraf, in Doctor Zhivago and Indian mystic Professor Godbole in A Passage to India. He was besides offered a character in Lean ‘s Ryan’s Daughter ( 1970 ) but declined. At that time, Guinness “ mistrusted ” Lean and considered the once close kinship to be strained—although, at his funeral, he recalled that the celebrated director had been “ charm and affable ”. Guinness appeared in five tend films that were ranked in the british Film Institute ‘s lead 50 greatest british films of the twentieth century : 3rd ( Lawrence of Arabia ), 5th ( Great Expectations ), 11th ( The Bridge on the River Kwai ), 27th ( Doctor Zhivago ) and 46th ( Oliver Twist ). [ 33 ]
Star Wars [edit ]
Guinness ‘s function as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy, beginning in 1977, brought him worldwide recognition to a modern generation, vitamin a well as Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. In letters to his friends, Guinness described the film as “ fairy-tale rubbish ” but the film ‘s sense of moral good – and the studio ‘s double of his initial wage crack – appealed to him and he agreed to take the function of Kenobi on the condition that he would not have to do any promotion to promote the film. [ 34 ] He initially negotiated a batch for 2 % of the movie ‘s royalties paid to the director, George Lucas, who, upon the warm reception of the film with the imperativeness and movie critics, and as a gesture of good-will for the positive amendments and suggestions Guinness proposed to the screenplay for the film, offered Guinness an extra 0.5 %, bringing his share to 2.5 %. When Guinness enquired about the contribution with the film ‘s producer Gary Kurtz, and asked for a written agreement so as to codify his earnings, Kurtz revised Lucas ‘s offering down by 0.25 %, bringing Guinness ‘s final, agreed-upon partake of royalties paid to the director to 2.25 % ( Lucas received one-fifth of the overall box office takings, which would approximately take Guinness ‘s plowshare of the overall box position to 0.45 % ). [ 35 ] [ 36 ] This made him very affluent in his belated life. Upon his first watch of the film, Guinness wrote in his diary, “ It ‘s a pretty stagger film as spectacle and technically brainy. Exciting, very noisy, and warm-hearted. The conflict scenes at the end go on for five minutes besides long, I feel, and some of the negotiation is excruciating and much of it is lost in randomness, but it remains a intense experience. ” Guinness soon became unhappy with being identified with the part and expressed depress at the sports fan following that the Star Wars trilogy attracted. In the DVD comment of the original Star Wars, Lucas says that Guinness was not felicitous with the script rewrite in which Obi-Wan is killed. Guinness said in a 1999 interview that it was actually his idea to kill off Obi-Wan, persuading Lucas that it would make him a stronger character and that Lucas agreed to the estimate. Guinness stated in the consultation, “ What I did n’t tell Lucas was that I just could n’t go on speaking those bloody terribly, banal lines. I ‘d had enough of the mumbo elephantine. ” He went on to say that he “ shrivelled up ” every time Star Wars was mentioned to him. [ 38 ]
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Although Guinness disliked the fame that followed work he did not hold in gamey respect, Lucas and mate cast members Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Kenny Baker, and Anthony Daniels have spoken highly of his courtesy and professionalism, on and off the set. Lucas credited him with inspiring the shed and crew to work heavily, saying that Guinness contributed significantly to achieving completion of the filming. Guinness was quoted as saying that the royalties he obtained from working on the films gave him “ no complaints ; let me leave it by saying I can live for the rest of my biography in the sanely modest way I am now used to, that I have no debts and I can afford to refuse bring that does n’t appeal to me. ” In his autobiography, Blessings in Disguise, Guinness tells an complex number interviewer “ Blessed be Star Wars “, regarding the income it provided. Guinness appeared in the film ‘s sequels The Empire Strikes Back ( 1980 ) and Return of the Jedi ( 1983 ), as a force touch apparition to the trilogy ‘s main quality Luke Skywalker. In 2003, Obi-Wan Kenobi as portrayed by Guinness was selected as the 37th-greatest champion in cinema history by the American Film Institute. [ 40 ] digitally altered archival audio of Guinness ‘s voice was used in the films Star Wars: The Force Awakens ( 2015 ) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ( 2019 ). [ 41 ] [ 42 ]
television appearances [edit ]
Guinness was reluctant to appear on television receiver, but accepted the separate of George Smiley in the serialization of John le Carré ‘s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( 1979 ) after meeting the writer. [ 43 ] Guinness reprised the function in Smiley’s People ( 1982 ), and doubly won the british Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his depiction of the quality. [ 44 ] He received another nomination for best actor for his function in Monsignor Quixote in 1987. [ 45 ] One of Guinness ‘s last appearances was in the BBC drama Eskimo Day ( 1996 ). [ 46 ] [ 47 ]
Awards and honours [edit ]
Plaque installed by the british Film Institute in the City of Westminster, London in recognition of Guinness ‘s contribution to British cinema Guinness won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in 1957 for his function in The Bridge on the River Kwai after having been unsuccessfully nominated for an academy award in 1952 for his performance in The Lavender Hill Mob. He was nominated in 1958 for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, for his screenplay adapted from Joyce Cary ‘s novel The Horse’s Mouth. He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his character as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars in 1977. He received an Academy Honorary Award for life accomplishment in 1980. In 1988, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Little Dorrit. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for life accomplishment in 1989. [ 48 ] For his field work, he received an Evening Standard Award for his performance as T. E. Lawrence in Ross and a Tony Award for his Broadway turn as Dylan Thomas in Dylan. Guinness received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 Vine Street on 8 February 1960. [ 3 ] Guinness was appointed Commander of the Order of the british Empire ( CBE ) in the 1955 Birthday Honours, Knight Bachelor in the 1959 New Year Honours and Companion of Honour in the 1994 Birthday Honours for services to drama. [ 11 ] In 1991, he received an honorary doctor’s degree from Cambridge University. [ 50 ]
personal life [edit ]
Guinness married the artist, dramatist, and actress Merula Silvia Salaman ( 1914–2000 ) in 1938 ; in 1940, they had a son, Matthew Guinness, who belated became an actor. From the 1950s the class lived at Kettlebrook Meadows, near Steep Marsh in Hampshire. The house itself was designed by Merula ‘s buddy Eusty Salaman. [ 52 ] His great-grandson Nesta Guinness-Walker is a professional football player. [ 53 ] In his biography, Alec Guinness: The Unknown, Garry O’Connor reports that Guinness was arrested and fined 10 guineas ( £10.50 ) for a homosexual act in a public toilet in Liverpool in 1946. Guinness is said to have avoided promotion by giving his name to police and court as “ Herbert Pocket ”, the name of the character he played in Great Expectations. however, no record of any apprehension has ever been found. Piers Paul Read, in his 2005 biography, suggests “ The rumor is possibly a conflation of stories about Alec ‘s ‘ cottaging ‘ and the check of John Gielgud, in October 1953, in a public toilet in Chelsea after dining with the Guinnesses at St. Peter ‘s Square. ” This trace was not made until April 2001, eight months after his death, when a BBC Showbiz article related that new books claimed that Guinness was bisexual and that he had kept his sex individual from the populace center and that the biography far said only his closest friends and kin members knew he had sexual relationships with men. [ 55 ] While serving in the Royal Navy, Guinness had planned to become an anglican priest. In 1954, while he was filming Father Brown in Burgundy, Guinness, who was in costume as a Catholic priest, was mistaken for a real priest by a local child. Guinness was far from fluent in French, and the child obviously did not notice that Guinness did not understand him but took his hand and chattered while the two strolled ; the child then waved and trotted off. The confidence and affection the clerical overdress appeared to inspire in the boy left a deep impression on the actor. [ 57 ] When their son was ill with poliomyelitis at the age of 11, Guinness began visiting a church service to pray. [ 58 ] A few years late in 1956, Guinness converted to the Roman Catholic Church. His wife, who was of paternal Sephardi Jewish descent, [ 59 ] followed suit in 1957 while he was in Ceylon filming The Bridge on the River Kwai, and she informed him merely after the event. Every dawn, Guinness recited a verse from Psalm 143, “ Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the good morning ”. [ 61 ]
death [edit ]
Hampshire The graves of Alec and Merula in Petersfield Guinness died on the night of 5 August 2000 at King Edward VII ‘s Hospital in Midhurst, West Sussex. [ 62 ] [ 63 ] He had been diagnosed with prostate gland cancer in February 2000, and with liver cancer two days before he died, while his wife, who died on 18 October 2000, was besides suffering from liver cancer. [ 64 ] He was interred at Petersfield Cemetery, Hampshire. [ 65 ]
Archives [edit ]
In 2013 the british Library acquired the personal archive of Guinness consisting of over 900 letters, manuscripts for plays, and 100 volumes of diaries from the late 1930s to his death. [ 66 ]
Autobiographies and biography [edit ]
Guinness wrote three volumes of a best-selling autobiography, beginning with Blessings in Disguise in 1985, followed by My Name Escapes Me in 1996, and A Positively Final Appearance in 1999. He recorded each of them as an audiobook. shortly after his death, Lady Guinness asked the pair ‘s close acquaintance and mate Catholic, novelist Piers Paul Read, to write Guinness ‘s official biography. It was published in 2002 .
Box function rank in Britain [edit ]
For a count of years, british film exhibitors voted Guinness among the most popular stars in Britain at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald .
- 1951: most popular British star (5th overall)[29]
- 1952: 3rd most popular British star[67]
- 1953: 2nd most popular British star
- 1954: 6th most popular British star
- 1955: 10th most popular British star[68]
- 1956: 8th most popular British star[69]
- 1958: most popular star[70]
- 1959: 2nd most popular British star[71]
- 1960: 4th most popular star