'Sir Alec Guinness'
CH,
CBE (
April 2,
1914 –
August 5,
2000) was an
Academy Award and
Tony Award-winning
English actor who became one of the most versatile and best-loved performers of his generation.
Early life
Guinness was born in
Marylebone,
London,
England, possibly as 'Alec Guinness de Cuffe', although what is written on his birth certificate, reportedly lacking a father's name, is not known. His mother's maiden name was Agnes Cuff. She would later marry Alec's stepfather, a
shell shocked veteran of the
Anglo-Irish War. Guinness' biological father paid for his son's private school education, but the two never met.
[1]
Career and war service
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. An early influence from afar was
Stan Laurel, whom Guinness admired.
[2]
Guinness continued working in Shakespeare throughout his career. In 1937 he played the role of Aumerle in ''
Richard II'' and Lorenzo in ''
The Merchant of Venice'' under the direction of
John Gielgud. He starred in a 1938 production of ''Hamlet'' which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. He also appeared as
Romeo in a production of ''
Romeo and Juliet'' (1939),
Andrew Aguecheek in ''
Twelfth Night'' and Chorus in ''
Henry V'' in 1937, both opposite
Laurence Olivier, and Ferdinand in ''
The Tempest,'' opposite
Gielgud as
Prospero.
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 film adaptation of the play.
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 and stayed through
1948, playing Abel Drugger in
Ben Jonson's ''
The Alchemist'', the Fool in ''
King Lear'' opposite
Laurence Olivier in the title role, DeGuiche in ''
Cyrano de Bergerac'' opposite
Ralph Richardson in the title role, and finally starring in an
Old Vic production himself as
Shakespeare's
Richard II. After leaving the
Old Vic, he had a success as the Uninvited Guest in the
Broadway production of
T.S. Eliot's ''
The Cocktail Party'' (1950, revived at the
Edinburgh Festival in 1968), but his second attempt at the title role of ''
Hamlet,'' this time under his own direction at the
New Theatre (1951), proved a major theatrical disaster.
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."
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: Arab leader
Prince Feisal in ''
Lawrence of Arabia'', the title character's half-brother, Bolshevik leader Yevgraf, in ''
Doctor Zhivago'', and Indian mystic Godbole in ''
A Passage to India''. 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, ''
The Horse's Mouth'' (1958) in which Guinness played the part of drunken painter Gulley Jimson as well as contributing the screenplay, for which he was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, ''
Tunes of Glory'' (1960), ''
Damn the Defiant!'' (1962), ''
The Fall of the Roman Empire'' (1964), ''
The Quiller Memorandum'' (1966), ''
Scrooge'' (1970), and the title role in '' (1973) (which he considered his best film performance).
Guinness was oft-criticized in the '60s for his choice of film roles, and was accused of choosing parts for money rather than quality. He turned down roles in many well-received films - most notably ''
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold'' - for ones that paid him better, although he won a
Tony Award for his
Broadway triumph as poet
Dylan Thomas in ''
Dylan''. He followed this success up by playing the title role in ''
Macbeth'' opposite
Simone Signoret at the
Royal Court Theatre in 1966, one of the most conspicuous failures of his career.
From the 1970s, Guinness made regular television appearances, including the part of
George Smiley in the serializations 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''.
Guinness received his fifth Oscar nomination for his performance in
Charles Dickens' ''
Little Dorrit'' in 1989. He received an honorary
Oscar in 1980 "for advancing the art of screen acting through a host of memorable and distinguished performances."
''Star Wars''
, 1977]]
Guinness' role as
Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original ''
Star Wars'' trilogy, beginning in 1977, 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 boxoffice hit and negotiated a deal for 2% of the gross, which made him very wealthy in later life.
However, Guinness 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. It was believed that Obi-Wan's scripted death was at his request, in order to limit his subsequent role in the series, as he could not face saying "those bloody awful lines". However, in the DVD commentary of ''Star Wars: A New Hope'', director
George Lucas mentions that Guinness was not happy about the script re-write in which Obi-Wan is killed. Guinness 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 Lucas) have always spoken highly of his courtesy and professionalism on and off the set, and did not let his distaste for the material show to his co-stars. In fact, Lucas credited him with inspiring fellow cast and crew to work harder, saying he was instrumental in helping to complete filming of the movies.
In his autobiography, ''
Blessings In Disguise'', Guinness tells an imaginary interviewer "Blessed be ''
Star Wars''!", while in the final volume of the book ''
A Positively Final Appearance'' (1997), he recounts grudgingly giving an autograph to a young fan who claimed to have watched ''Star Wars'' over a hundred times, on the condition that the fan promised to stop watching the film, because as Guinness put it "this is going to be an ill effect on your life." The fan was stunned at first, but later thanked him. Guinness grew so tired of modern audiences seeming to remember him only for his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi that he would throw away the fan mail he received from ''Star Wars'' fans, without reading it.
[3]
Personal life
Guinness 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.
While in the navy, Guinness for a while planned on becoming an Anglican priest. 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.
[4][5] Every morning, Guinness recited a verse from ''
Psalm 143'', "Cause me to hear your lovingkindness in the morning".
[6]
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 was interred with her husband of 62 years.
Encounter with James Dean
In September 1955, Guinness met with the actor
James Dean, then filming
Rebel Without A Cause, who was showing off his new car, a Porsche 550 Spyder. Guinness had a premonition that Dean would die behind its wheel,
and this was borne out when Dean was involved in a fatal collision with another vehicle on a Californian highway later that month.
[2].
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 in 1958 for his screenplay adapted from
Joyce Cary's novel ''
The Horse's Mouth'' and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as
Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977. He also received an
Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980.
He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1955, and was
knighted in 1959. He became a
Companion of Honour in 1994 at the age of 80.
He has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 Vine Street.
Guinness wrote three volumes of a bestselling autobiography, beginning with ''
Blessings in Disguise'' in 1985, followed by ''
My Name Escapes Me'' in 1996, and ''A Positively Final Appearance'' in 1999. His authorised biography was written by his friend, British novelist
Piers Paul Read, and published in 2003.
Filmography
Notes
1. Alec Guinness biography at MSN Movies
2. On June 3, 1961, Alec Guinness sent a letter to Stan Laurel,[1] acknowledging that he had unconsciously modeled his portrayal of Sir Andrew Aguecheek as he imagined Laurel might have done. Guinness was 23 at the time he was performing in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, so this would have been around 1937, by which time Laurel had become an international movie star.
3. The shy introvert who shone on screen
4. How Father Brown Led Sir Alec Guinness to the Church Rita Reichardt
5. Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000) Tom Sutcliffe
6. ''The invisible man'', by Hugh Davies, originally published in the ''Telegraph'' and reprinted in ''The Sunday Age'', 13 August 2000.
External links
★
★
1986 audio interview of Alec Guinness by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio
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