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Alec Guinness - Wikipedia. Sir Alec Guinness, CHCBE (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe, 2 April 1. August 2. 00. 0) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played nine different characters. He is also known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1. Fagin in Oliver Twist (1. Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1.

Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia (1. General Yevgraf Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago (1. Professor Godbole in A Passage to India (1. He is also known for his portrayal of Obi- Wan Kenobi in George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy, receiving a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Guinness was one of three British actors, along with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, who made the transition from Shakespearean theatre to blockbuster films immediately after World War II. Guinness served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the war and commanded a landing craft during the invasion of Sicily and Elba. During the war he was granted leave to appear on the stage play Flare Path about the RAF Bomber Command.

Guinness has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Tony Award. In 1. 95. 9, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1.

Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1. BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 1. Early life. She was born 8 December 1. Edward Cuff and Mary Ann Benfield.

On Guinness's birth certificate, the space for the mother's name shows Agnes de Cuffe. The space for the infant's name (where first names only are given) says Alec Guinness.

The column for name and surname of father is blank. Guinness himself believed that his father was a Scottish banker, Andrew Geddes (1. Guinness's public school education at Fettes College. Geddes occasionally visited Guinness and his mother, posing as an uncle.

His first job in the theatre was on his 2. Libel, which opened at the old King's Theatre, Hammersmith, and then transferred to the Playhouse, where his status was raised from a walk- on to understudying two lines, and his salary increased to . Also in 1. 93. 6, Guinness signed on with the Old Vic, where he was cast in a series of classic roles. An early influence from afar was Stan Laurel, whom Guinness admired.

In 1. 93. 7, he played Aumerle in Richard II and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice under the direction of John Gielgud. He starred in a 1.

Hamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1. 93. 9, he adapted Great Expectations for the stage, playing Herbert Pocket. The play was a success. One of its viewers was a young British film editor, David Lean, who would later have Guinness reprise his role in Lean's 1.

Second World War. After leaving the Old Vic, he played Eric Birling in J.

Priestley's An Inspector Calls at the New Theatre in October 1. He played the Uninvited Guest in the Broadway production of T. Eliot's The Cocktail Party (1. Edinburgh Festival in 1. He played Hamlet under his own direction at the New Theatre (1.

On 1. 3 July 1. 95. Guinness spoke the first lines of the first play produced by the festival, Shakespeare's Richard III: . He next played the title role in Macbeth opposite Simone Signoret at the Royal Court Theatre in 1.

In all, between 2 April 1. May 1. 98. 9, he played 7. Other films from this period included The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers, and The Man in the White Suit. In 1. 95. 2, director Ronald Neame cast Guinness in his first romantic lead role, opposite Petula Clark in The Card. In 1. 95. 1, exhibitors voted him the most popular British star. Guinness also played the role of Jamessir Bensonmum, the blind butler, in the 1.

Neil Simon film Murder by Death. David Lean. After appearing in Lean's Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, he was given a starring role opposite William Holden in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

For his performance as Colonel Nicholson, the unyielding British POW commanding officer, Guinness won an Academy Award. Despite a difficult and often hostile relationship, Lean, referring to Guinness as . He was also offered a role in Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1.

At that time, Guinness . In letters to his friends, Guinness described the film as . This made him very wealthy in his later life. Upon his first viewing of the film, Guinness wrote in his diary, . Exciting, very noisy and warm- hearted. The battle scenes at the end go on for five minutes too long, I feel, and some of the dialogue is excruciating and much of it is lost in noise, but it remains a vivid experience.

In the DVD commentary of the original Star Wars, Lucas says that Guinness was not happy with the script rewrite in which Obi- Wan is killed. Guinness said in a 1.

Obi- Wan, persuading Lucas that it would make him a stronger character and that Lucas agreed to the idea. Guinness stated in the interview, . I'd had enough of the mumbo jumbo.

Lucas credited him with inspiring cast and crew to work harder, 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 . The fan was stunned at first but later thanked him (though some sources say it went differently). Guinness is quoted as saying: . His mother drew herself up to an immense height. Maybe she was right but I just hope the lad, now in his thirties, is not living in a fantasy world of second hand, childish banalities. He twice won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for the roles, and Le Carr.

One of Guinness's last appearances was in the BBC drama Eskimo Day (1. Awards and honours. He was nominated in 1. 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 Best Supporting Actor for his role as Obi- Wan Kenobi in Star Wars in 1. He received an Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1. In 1. 98. 8, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Little Dorrit.

He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for lifetime achievement in 1. For his theatre work, he received an Evening Standard Award for his performance as T.

Lawrence in Ross and a Tony Award for his Broadway turn as Dylan Thomas in Dylan. The family lived at Steep Marsh in Hampshire. Guinness is said to have avoided publicity by giving his name to police and court as . This suggestion was not made until April 2. BBC News article claimed that Guinness was in fact bisexual and that he had kept his sexuality private from the public eye; only his closest friends and family members knew he had sexual relationships with men. He believes that Guinness was confused with John Gielgud, who was notoriously arrested for such an act in 1.

While serving in the Royal Navy, Guinness had planned to become an Anglicanpriest. In 1. 95. 4, 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 apparently 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. His wife, who was of paternal Sephardi Jewish descent. He was interred at Petersfield, Hampshire.

His widow, Lady Guinness, died of cancer at Petersfield, two months after her husband, also aged 8. He recorded each of them as an audiobook. Shortly after his death, Lady Guinness asked the couple's close friend and fellow Catholic, novelist Piers Paul Read, to write Guinness's official biography. It was published in 2. Filmography. James.

Malta Story. Flight Lieutenant Peter Ross RAF1. Father Brown. Father Brown. Stratford Adventure, The. The Stratford Adventure.

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