56 Facts About Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Tony Award.

Alec Guinness received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980 and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 1989.

Alec Guinness continued to play Shakespearean roles throughout his career.

Alec Guinness was one of the greatest British actors who, along with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, made the transition from theatre to films after the Second World War.

Alec Guinness made his name in six Ealing comedies, starting in 1949 with both A Run for Your Money and Kind Hearts and Coronets, going on to lead roles in 1951 with The Man in the White Suit and The Lavender Hill Mob, then in 1955 with The Ladykillers, and culminating in 1957 with Barnacle Bill.

Alec Guinness collaborated six times with director David Lean: as Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations ; Fagin in Oliver Twist ; Col.

In 1970, Alec Guinness played Jacob Marley's ghost in Ronald Neame's Scrooge.

Alec Guinness portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy, which brought him further recognition; for his performance in the original 1977 film, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 50th Academy Awards.

Alec Guinness's mother's maiden name was Agnes Cuff, born on 8 December 1890 to Edward Charles Cuff, a sometime lifeguard at Bournemouth who had served in the Royal Navy, and Mary Ann, nee Benfield, of a family of stonemasons and publicans.

The identity of Alec Guinness's father has never been officially confirmed.

Agnes Cuff had worked at Cowes on the Isle of Wight as a barmaid at the Royal Yacht Squadron clubhouse at the time of the Cowes Regatta in 1913, which was attended by several members of the Alec Guinness family including Edward Alec Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, and his sons Ernest and Walter.

Alec Guinness himself believed that his father was a Scottish banker, Andrew Geddes, who paid for Alec Guinness's boarding-school education at Pembroke Lodge, in Southbourne, and Roborough, in Eastbourne.

Alec Guinness appeared at the New Theatre in 1936 at the age of 22, playing the role of Osric in John Gielgud's successful production of Hamlet.

Also in 1936, Alec Guinness signed on with the Old Vic, where he was cast in a series of classic roles.

At the Old Vic, Alec Guinness worked with many actors and actresses who became his friends and frequent co-stars in the future, including Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Anthony Quayle, and Jack Hawkins.

Alec Guinness starred in a 1938 production of Hamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

Alec Guinness appeared as Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and as Exeter in Henry V in 1937, both opposite Laurence Olivier, and Ferdinand in The Tempest, opposite Gielgud as Prospero.

Alec Guinness served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, initially as a seaman in 1941, before receiving a commission as a temporary Sub-lieutenant on 30 April 1942 and a promotion to Temporary Lieutenant the following year.

Alec Guinness then commanded a Landing Craft Infantry at the Allied invasion of Sicily, and later ferried supplies and agents to the Yugoslav partisans in the eastern Mediterranean theatre.

Alec 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 title role, 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.

Alec Guinness played the Uninvited Guest in the Broadway production of T S Eliot's The Cocktail Party.

Alec Guinness played Hamlet under his own direction at the New Theatre in the West End in 1951.

Alec Guinness won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance as Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in Dylan.

Alec Guinness next played the title role in Macbeth opposite Simone Signoret at the Royal Court Theatre in 1966.

Alec Guinness made his final stage performance at the Comedy Theatre in the West End on 30 May 1989, in the play A Walk in the Woods.

Alec Guinness made his speaking debut in film in the drama Great Expectations.

Alec Guinness was initially mainly associated with the Ealing comedies, and particularly for playing eight characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets.

Alec Guinness played the role of Jamessir Bensonmum, the blind butler, in the 1976 Neil Simon film Murder by Death.

Alec Guinness won particular praise for his collaborations with director David Lean, which today represent his most critically acclaimed work.

Alec Guinness was offered a role in Lean's Ryan's Daughter but declined.

Alec Guinness appeared in five Lean films that were ranked in the British Film Institute's 50 greatest British films of the 20th century: 3rd, 5th, 11th, 27th and 46th.

Alec 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 idea.

Lucas credited him with inspiring the cast and crew to work harder, saying that Alec Guinness contributed significantly to achieving completion of the filming.

Alec Guinness appeared in the film's sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, as a force ghost apparition to the trilogy's main character Luke Skywalker.

In 2003, Obi-Wan Kenobi as portrayed by Alec Guinness was selected as the 37th-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.

Digitally altered archival audio of Alec Guinness's voice was used in the films Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Alec Guinness was reluctant to appear on television, but accepted the part of George Smiley in the BBC Television serialisation of John le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy after meeting the author.

Alec Guinness reprised the role in Smiley's People, and twice won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the character.

Alec Guinness received another nomination for best actor for his role in Monsignor Quixote in 1987.

Alec Guinness received an Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980.

Alec Guinness received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for lifetime achievement in 1989.

Alec Guinness received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 Vine Street on 8 February 1960.

Alec Guinness was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1955 Birthday Honours, was knighted by Elizabeth II in the 1959 New Year Honours, and was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 1994 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

In 2014, Alec Guinness was among the ten people commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail in their "Remarkable Lives" issue.

Alec Guinness married the artist, playwright and actress Merula Silvia Salaman in 1938; in 1940, they had a son, Matthew Alec Guinness, who later became an actor.

In 1954, while he was filming Father Brown in Burgundy, Alec Guinness, who was in costume as a Catholic priest, was mistaken for a real priest by a local child.

Alec Guinness was far from fluent in French, and the child apparently did not notice that Alec Guinness did not understand him but took his hand and chattered while the two strolled; the child then waved and trotted off.

Alec Guinness told a story in a media interview and wrote in his memoir that he met James Dean and predicted Dean's death one week before he was killed in a car accident in 1955.

In interviews shortly after his death, Alec Guinness recalled that all of Dean's friends had issued similar warnings because he drove too fast.

Every morning, Alec Guinness recited verse eight from Psalm 143, "Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning".

Alec Guinness died on the night of 5 August 2000 at King Edward VII's Hospital in Midhurst, West Sussex.

Alec Guinness had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in February 2000, and with liver cancer two days before he died.

Alec Guinness's funeral was held at St Laurence Catholic Church in Petersfield, Hampshire, and he was interred at Petersfield Cemetery.

In 2013 the British Library acquired the personal archive of Alec Guinness consisting of over 900 letters, manuscripts for plays, and 100 volumes of diaries from the late 1930s to his death.

Alec 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.

Shortly after his death, Lady Alec Guinness asked the couple's close friend and fellow Catholic, novelist Piers Paul Read, to write Alec Guinness's official biography.