Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness de Cuffe was born on 2 April 1914 in Maida Vale, London, and died on 5 August 2000. The identity of his father was never officially confirmed; Guinness himself believed his father to be a Scottish banker named Andrew Geddes, who paid for his education at boarding schools in Southbourne and Eastbourne and occasionally visited while posing as an uncle. His mother, Agnes Cuff, had previously worked as a barmaid at the Royal Yacht Squadron clubhouse during the 1913 Cowes Regatta, an event attended by several members of the Guinness family, leading some of them to claim a resemblance between Alec and one or more of those present. Guinness's mother later entered a three-year marriage to a Scottish army captain named Stiven.

Guinness began his professional stage career on 2 April 1934, his twentieth birthday, while studying at the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art, appearing in the play Libel at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, before it transferred to the West End's Playhouse. In 1936, at the age of 22, he played Osric in John Gielgud's production of Hamlet at the New Theatre and joined the Old Vic, where he worked alongside Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Anthony Quayle, and Jack Hawkins. His Shakespearean work during this period included Aumerle in Richard II and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice in 1937, both directed by Gielgud, as well as Exeter in Henry V opposite Laurence Olivier. He starred in a 1938 production of Hamlet that earned him recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, and also appeared as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and Ferdinand in The Tempest opposite Gielgud as Prospero. In 1939, he adapted Charles Dickens's Great Expectations for the stage, playing Herbert Pocket, a production later seen by the young film editor David Lean.

During the Second World War, Guinness served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, initially as a seaman in 1941 before receiving a commission as temporary Sub-lieutenant on 30 April 1942 and a promotion to Temporary Lieutenant the following year. He commanded a Landing Craft Infantry during the Allied invasion of Sicily and later ferried supplies and agents to Yugoslav partisans in the eastern Mediterranean. While on wartime leave, he made his Broadway debut in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path, playing Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham, a drama concerning RAF Bomber Command. His Broadway career spanned from 1942 to 1964.

Following the war, Guinness returned to the Old Vic from 1946 to 1948, taking on roles including Abel Drugger in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, the Fool in King Lear opposite Olivier, DeGuiche in Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Richardson, and the title role in Richard II. He then played Eric Birling in J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls at the New Theatre in October 1946. On Broadway, he appeared as the Uninvited Guest in T. S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party in 1950, and later starred in Dylan, for which he received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1964.

Guinness's film career brought him international prominence, beginning with six Ealing comedies starting in 1949, including A Run for Your Money and Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which he played eight different characters. He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for The Lavender Hill Mob in 1951, having also appeared that year in The Man in the White Suit. Later Ealing credits included The Ladykillers in 1955 and Barnacle Bill in 1957. His collaboration with David Lean spanned six films: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), General Yevgraf Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Professor Godbole in A Passage to India (1984). His performance in The Bridge on the River Kwai earned him both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. In 1970, he played Jacob Marley's ghost in Ronald Neame's Scrooge. He portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy, and his performance in the 1977 film earned him nominations for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. In the BFI list of the 100 most important British films of the twentieth century, Guinness appeared across nine films, six in starring roles and three in supporting roles.

In television, Guinness became closely associated with the role of George Smiley in the BBC adaptations of John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. His career honors included an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Tony Award, and a Volpi Cup. In 1959, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for services to the arts. He 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.