Alec Guinness
(1914 - 2000)He was one of the greatest character actors ever and a star. His beginnings were as a rogue's gallery of characters in the British Cinema. Although he could play scoundrels, rascals and rogues to the hilt, we knew that behind that façade lurked a gentle soul. Tall, of medium build, with a kindly, plain but chameleon-like, face and soulful eyes he was adept at makeup and in many roles was almost unrecognizable. Americans know him best as the proud but over zealous Colonel in "Bridge on the River Kwai" and the gentle sage, Obi Wan Kenobi of the "Star Wars" films. He was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe in London, England on April 2, 1914 to an unwed mother, Agnes de Cuffe. His father ran out on them and when Alec was aged five his mother married a man named David Stiven and young Alec took his name although he did not like his stepfather at all. His mother divorced Stiven three years later. Alec attended Pembroke Lodge boarding school where he developed an affinity for acting. He was a "hit" in his first performance; a bit part in "Macbeth." After graduating he worked as an apprentice copywriter for a time. Still enthralled by acting, he contacted actress Martita Hunt (see: Page 1) and successfully asked her to give him acting lessons. She trained him for a time, but later told him "he'd never make an actor." He later earned a scholarship to the Fay Compton School of Dramatic Art. He also trained by watching and observing everyday Londoners go about their daily business…copying their gait, mimicking their looks, etc. He even won an award at an acting recital that was judged by, among others, John Gielgud (see: Page 6). It was Gielgud who also gave him his first break into the theatre. He worked and trained with the best of British stage and screen. After joining the Royal Navy in 1941 and spending most of his time on convoys in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, he was given special leave to make his Broadway stage debut in 1942. Naturally, he had similar success on Broadway. Although he worked as an extra in a 1934 film, his film acting debut came in David Lean's "Great Expectations" (1946) as Herbert Pocket. He worked in the British Cinema mainly in his early films. His film credits include: Lean's "Oliver Twist" (1948) as Fagin; "A Run for Your Money" (1949) as Whimple; "Kind Hearts and Coronets" (1949) as Ascoyne; "The Mudlark" (1950) with Finlay Currie (see: Page 1), as Benjamin Disraeli, one of my favorite of his roles; "The Man in the White Suit" (1951) as Sidney Stratton; "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951) as Holland, for which he received an Oscar nomination as Best Actor; "Father Brown" (1954) as Father Brown; "The Prisoner" (1955) as The Cardinal; "The Ladykillers" (1959) as Prof. Marcus; "The Swan" (1956) as Prince Albert; his greatest role "Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) as Col. Nicholson, for which he won an Oscar as Best Actor; "The Horse's Mouth" (1958) as Gully Jimson; "Our Man in Havana" (1960) as Jim Wormold; "Tunes of Glory" (1960) as Maj. Jock Sinclair, another great role; "A Majority of One" (1961) as Koichi Asano; "Damn the Defiant" (1962) as Capt. Crawford; "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) as Prince Feisal, proving his versatility as an actor; "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964) as Marcus Aurelius, another favorite role of mine; "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) as Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago; "The Comedians" (1967) as Maj. Jones; the musical "Scrooge" (1970) with Albert Finney, as Jacob Marley's Ghost, another fine role; "Cromwell" (1970) as King Charles I, yet another of my favorite Guinness roles; one of his rare comedy appearances "Murder by Death" (1976) as Jamesir Bensonmum, another favorite of mine; George Lucas' "Star Wars" (1977) as Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi, another terrific role for which he received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor; "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) again as Obi-Wan Kenobi; "Raise the Titanic" (1980) as John Bigalow; "Return of the Jedi" (1983) again as Obi-Wan Kenobi; "Lovesick" (1983) as Sigmund Freud; "A Passage to India" (1984) as Prof. Godbole; "Little Dorritt" (1988) as William Dorritt, for which he received yet another Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor; "Kafka" (1991) as The Chief Clerk; "A Foreign Field" (1993) as Amos and Mute Witness" (1994) as The Reaper, his final film role. He appeared in some excellent TV movies including: "Conversation at Night" (1969); "Twelfth Night" (1969); "e.e. Cummings (1970); "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1976); the fabulous version of "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1980); "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (1980) a mini-series; "Smiley's People" (1982) a mini-series and "Edwin" (1984). He was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1980 for his superior acting. He was nominated and won numerous awards throughout his distinguished career including a Golden Glove as Best Actor for "Bridge on the River Kwai." He said he often got inquiries as to whether or not he was related to the ale making Guinness family, but he wasn't; however, he did in fact meet and come to know some members of that famous family. A quiet, unpretentious man, he lived in a modest home in Hampshire in the south of England. He was married to Merula Salaman, a former actress and they had a son, Matthew. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1959. He died of cancer on August 5, 2000 in West Sussex, England at the age of 86.
From Great Character Actors, Page 7.
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