Actors - Alec Guinness

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Alec Guinness

	Actors - Alec Guinness

Sir Alec Guinness CH CBE (2 April 1914–5 August 2000) was an Oscar-winning English actor who became one of the most versatile and best-loved performers of his generation.

Life

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, an actor born in 1940. Despite this, in more recent times it has been argued that he was probably gay, especially since he was arrested in 1946 for cottaging in a toilet Liverpool - during the arrest he gave his name as Herbert Pocket, a character from Great Expectations that he had recently played, and hence avoided drawing attention to the event.

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 awhile 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.

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 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. He collaborated frequently with director David Lean, and some of his memorable film appearances included Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Lawrence of Arabia
, The Bridge on the River Kwai
(for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor), Tunes of Glory
, Doctor Zhivago
, 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. Guinness agreed to do 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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Alec Guinness ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Alec Guinness; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Actors - Alec Guinness

Life

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay