Background
Alec Guinness was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe, on April 2, 1914, in Marylebone, London, England. He was the son of Andrew Guinness, a banker, and Agnes Cuffe Guinness.
Guinness received 5 Academy Award.
In 1934, Guinness studied at Fay Compton Studio Dramatic Art.
(Covering the year 1995 up to the summer of 1996, the dist...)
Covering the year 1995 up to the summer of 1996, the distinguished English actor offers a collection of spontaneous reflections on the theater, books and art, the church, gatherings with famous friends, and the English countryside.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670875899/?tag=2022091-20
1997
(In a follow-up to his 1995-1996 memoir, My Name Escapes M...)
In a follow-up to his 1995-1996 memoir, My Name Escapes Me, the acclaimed British star of stage and film again shares his observations of modern life from the English countryside perspective, re-reading Dickens, experimenting with Chinese cooking, and reveling in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
https://www.amazon.com/Positively-Final-Appearance-Journal-1996-1998/dp/0670888001/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(A mild, unambitious and unsuccessful North-countryman is ...)
A mild, unambitious and unsuccessful North-countryman is told by his doctor that he has contracted a fatal disease and has only a month to live. He decides to blow his savings on a visit to an exclusive hotel at a seaside resort. He goes to a tailor who explains the clothing and demeanor he needs.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Holiday-Alec-Guinness/dp/B00H3EKUNS/?tag=2022091-20
1950
(Alec Guinness has one of his finest comic roles in this E...)
Alec Guinness has one of his finest comic roles in this Ealing satirical comedy about a much patronized amateur scientist whose latest invention creates an uproar in the British textile industry.
https://www.amazon.com/Man-White-Suit-Michael-Gough/dp/B003Y17KCS/?tag=2022091-20
1951
(A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion jo...)
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eifel Towers.
https://www.amazon.com/Lavender-Hill-Mob-Alec-Guinness/dp/B07FH7RKYW/?tag=2022091-20
1951
(Alec Guiness stars as Peter Ross, a World War II camera r...)
Alec Guiness stars as Peter Ross, a World War II camera reconnaissance pilot, who crash lands in Matla with evidence that the Italians are building up forces for a major invasion of the island. Will Malta fall to the enemy?
https://www.amazon.com/Malta-Story-Alec-Guinness/dp/B009SJ7KBQ/?tag=2022091-20
1953
(Though once close friends with a bond formed by their str...)
Though once close friends with a bond formed by their struggle against Nazi occupation, the Cardinal (Alec Guinness) has been arrested and, charged with a series of phony crimes, is subjected to intense questioning by the Interrogator (Jack Hawkins).
https://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-Alec-Guinness/dp/B07J1599DJ/?tag=2022091-20
1955
(A gang finds itself living with a little old lady, who th...)
A gang finds itself living with a little old lady, who thinks they are musicians. When the gang sets out to kill Mrs. Wilberforce, they run into one problem after another, and they get what they deserve.
https://www.amazon.com/Ladykillers-Alec-Guinness/dp/B003FBMICE/?tag=2022091-20
1955
(A romantic fable about a shy princess (Grace Kelly) whose...)
A romantic fable about a shy princess (Grace Kelly) whose head tells her to wed a worldly Crown Prince (Guinness), but whose heart is drawn to a dashing commoner (Jourdan).
https://www.amazon.com/Swan-Grace-Kelly/dp/B00YJL1M9Y/?tag=2022091-20
1956
(Allied commandos are dispatched deep inside the Burmese j...)
Allied commandos are dispatched deep inside the Burmese jungle to blow up a strategic bridge built by British POWs. Starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Sessue Hayakawa.
https://www.amazon.com/Bridge-River-Kwai-Alec-Guinness/dp/B0094M2Z9O/?tag=2022091-20
1957
(In Ronald Neame's film of Joyce Cary's classic novel, Ale...)
In Ronald Neame's film of Joyce Cary's classic novel, Alec Guinness transforms himself into one of cinema's most indelible comic figures: the lovably scruffy painter Gulley Jimson. As the ill-behaved Jimson searches for a perfect canvas, he determines to let nothing come between himself and the realization of his exalted vision.
https://www.amazon.com/Horses-Mouth-Alec-Guinness/dp/B00A5IZFP2/?tag=2022091-20
1958
(In Ronald Neame's Tunes of Glory, the incomparable Alec G...)
In Ronald Neame's Tunes of Glory, the incomparable Alec Guinness inhabits the role of Jock Sinclair - a whiskey-drinking, up-by-the-bootstraps commanding officer of a peacetime Scottish battalion. Sinclair is a lifetime military man, who expects respect and loyalty from his men. But when Basil Barrow - an educated, by-the-book scion of a traditionally military family - enters the scene as Sinclair's replacement, the two men become locked in a fierce battle for control of the battalion and the hearts and minds of its men.
https://www.amazon.com/Tunes-Glory-Alec-Guinness/dp/B00A5IYH7E/?tag=2022091-20
1960
(Winner of seven Academy Awards(r), including Best Picture...)
Winner of seven Academy Awards(r), including Best Picture (1962), this is the restored director's cut of the breathtaking masterpiece.
https://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-Arabia-Peter-OToole/dp/B00REQM29A/?tag=2022091-20
1962
(Action-packed look at the beginnings of the fall of the R...)
Action-packed look at the beginnings of the fall of the Roman Empire. Here is the glory, the greed and grandeur that was Rome...
https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Roman-Empire-Alec-Guinness/dp/B00HHV2MVU/?tag=2022091-20
1964
(Oscar winner Alec Guiness stars in this classic Shakespea...)
Oscar winner Alec Guiness stars in this classic Shakespearian comedy about twins, Viola and Sebastian who suffer a shipwreck and live to tell a tale of mistaken identities, disguises and young love.
https://www.amazon.com/Twelfth-Night-Alec-Guinness/dp/B079SLBM3F/?tag=2022091-20
1970
(St. Francis of Assisi was an extraordinarily complex and ...)
St. Francis of Assisi was an extraordinarily complex and difficult figure whose effect on his contemporary society was electrifying.
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Sister-Moon-Graham-Faulkner/dp/B00AA2HM4A/?tag=2022091-20
1972
(An eccentric millionaire (Truman Capote) invites the worl...)
An eccentric millionaire (Truman Capote) invites the world's top detectives to his remote mansion in this clever comedy by Neil Simon. He involves them (Charlie Chan, Miss Marple and Sam Spade, amongothers) in a baffling whodunit, convinced he can out-sleuth them all.
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Death-Peter-Falk/dp/B00AB0NTTI/?tag=2022091-20
1976
(An underwater race to salvage the Titanic and its vital d...)
An underwater race to salvage the Titanic and its vital defense cargo. Adapted from Clive Cussler's international best-seller, the story follows the exploits of American special agent Dirk Pitt, as he sets out to recover vital material from the Titanic which could make the US impregnable to atomic attack.
https://www.amazon.com/Raise-Titanic-Jason-Robards/dp/B07DWL1BCM/?tag=2022091-20
1980
Alec Guinness was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe, on April 2, 1914, in Marylebone, London, England. He was the son of Andrew Guinness, a banker, and Agnes Cuffe Guinness.
In 1934, Guinness studied at Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art.
In 1962, Alec received an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Boston College, and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Oxford University, in England.
From his youth, Guinness was interested in acting, though he was not much encouraged. At the age of 18, he began working for an advertising agency, but he soon began to study acting and made his stage debut in 1934 as an extra at the King’s Theatre in Hammersmith, London. Three years later he got his first real break when he joined the acting company of John Gielgud. As a member of the company he appeared in such classics as Richard II (1937), The School for Scandal (1937), The Three Sisters (1937), and The Merchant of Venice (1938).
In 1938 he starred in a popular modern-dress version of Hamlet at London’s Old Vic. While on leave from the Royal Navy during World War II, he made his New York stage debut in a 10-day Christmas run of Flare Path (1942–43), and in later years he appeared there in T.S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party (1964) and in a play about the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, Dylan (1964).
Guinness’s initial screen role was as Pip’s friend Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), an adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens. After this he performed in Oliver Twist (1948) and a series of Ealing Studios comedies, notably the internationally popular Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which he played the roles of each of eight heirs to a dukedom, as well as The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951), and The Ladykillers (1955).
Among Guinness’s other notable films are The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won a best actor Academy Award; The Horse’s Mouth (1958), in which he played the artist Gulley Jimson; and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), in which he played Prince Feisal.
Guinness won a whole new generation of fans for his role as the Jedi warrior Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi in Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). Despite this newfound popularity, however, Guinness hated his role in these movies, later stating in an interview that he had encouraged George Lucas to kill off his character: “I just couldn’t go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I’d had enough of the mumbo jumbo.” Roles that were more to his liking were those of Professor Godbole in A Passage to India (1984) and William Dorrit in Little Dorrit (1987).
Guinness also starred as the master spy George Smiley in two television miniseries, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1980) and Smiley’s People (1982). The multitalented actor also wrote dramatizations (The Brothers Karamazov and Great Expectations) and a film script (The Horse’s Mouth) and coauthored the play Yahoo (1976).
(In a follow-up to his 1995-1996 memoir, My Name Escapes M...)
1999(Covering the year 1995 up to the summer of 1996, the dist...)
1997(The actor's account of his youth, training, stage and fil...)
1986(Though once close friends with a bond formed by their str...)
1955(Oscar winner Alec Guiness stars in this classic Shakespea...)
1970(In Ronald Neame's Tunes of Glory, the incomparable Alec G...)
1960(Alec Guinness has one of his finest comic roles in this E...)
1951(Alec Guiness stars as Peter Ross, a World War II camera r...)
1953(In Ronald Neame's film of Joyce Cary's classic novel, Ale...)
1958(A romantic fable about a shy princess (Grace Kelly) whose...)
1956(A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion jo...)
1951(A mild, unambitious and unsuccessful North-countryman is ...)
1950(An eccentric millionaire (Truman Capote) invites the worl...)
1976(Winner of seven Academy Awards(r), including Best Picture...)
1962(Demobbed from 'active' service, Cadet Midshipman Queasy h...)
1957(Alec Guiness stars as a poor but enterprising young man w...)
1952(Allied commandos are dispatched deep inside the Burmese j...)
1957(Richard Harris and Alec Guinness star in a dazzling epic ...)
1970(Ghosts of Past, Present and Future appear taking Scrooge ...)
1970(A gang finds itself living with a little old lady, who th...)
1955(An underwater race to salvage the Titanic and its vital d...)
1980(Action-packed look at the beginnings of the fall of the R...)
1964(St. Francis of Assisi was an extraordinarily complex and ...)
1972Guinness was a devout Christian and daily recited a verse from Psalm 143, "Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning".
Quotations:
“I’m very naive about picking my parts, and I’ve been at it for 50 years now. I make wrong choices sometimes but not for economic reasons. I don’t think to myself: ‘Well, that’s a money spinner’ - and then go ahead and do it. I open a script. If it holds my attention and I go on reading. I become an audience in a perfectly simple way. I don’t analyze at all.”
“You can enjoy making a film, and it turns out to be lousy; you can go through agony making it, and it turns out better; once I’ve done something, I don’t live in the past at all. I don’t go over my work in my mind, and I certainly don’t go and look at a film again. Of parts I’ve played that have please me, two stand out: Tunes of Glory, in which though did a quite decent job, and The Horse's Mouth. I had a particular interest in that, having written the script.”
“I try to get inside a character and project him - one of my own private rules of thumb is that I have not got a character unless I have mastered exactly how he walks…. It’s not sufficient to concentrate on his looks. You have got to know his mind….”
Guinness was a member of the British Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, Atheneum of London, and Garrick Club.
Of all the British “theatrical knights,” Guinness had the most interesting career in films. Not that he ever forsook theatre. But Guinness had a remote, reflective personality that often worked well in movies. Perhaps the film taught him a love of detail best noticed by the camera. It may also be that he enjoyed the challenge to stay hidden or secret when under intense scrutiny. His 1985 autobiography was called Blessings in Disguise, and it made clear his tranquil pleasure doing films, as well as the dreamy Catholic assurance that nothing in life is too important.
Despite his high reputation in America, where he was seen as the key actor in Ealing comedies - and he was nominated for best actor in The Lavender Hill Mob (51, Charles Crichton), Alec never went Hollywood. Instead, he sometimes pursued personal projects that must have seemed farfetched.
One of the more unique aspects of Guinness’s talent was his ability to disappear into a role, thus belying the dictum that actors without a consistent screen persona are not likely to become stars. Fellow actor Peter Ustinov once called Guinness “the outstanding poet of anonymity,” in reference to Guinness’s ability to create complex characterizations without incorporating his own recognizable personal traits and mannerisms. Guinness’s characters ranged from meek to malevolent, from timid bank clerks to fiery military officers, and all were noted for their depth and credibility, even those that called for him to wear layers of heavy makeup and prosthetics. Shy in private, he played roles that dominated the stage and screen. For many, he was also the quintessential English gentlemen, a true knight of the stage.
Quotes from others about the person
“During the past half-century or so, Guinness has played dozens of memorable roles. Now, at 71, he has added another role to that impressive list: author of one of the best show-business memoirs of recent years, a witty, wise and consistently entertaining account of life under the greasepaint.” - Gerald Clarke
On June 20, 1938, Guinness married Merula Salaman, an actress. They had a son Matthew, who is also known as an actor.