Happy Anniversary Sir Alec Guinness, whom Tom Sutcliffe described as "the best-known and loved English actor of the 20th century". I'm not too certain of that superlative. That he was well-known - a star in his time - and much loved, there's no doubt about it. In our family, Guinness was known as "the egg" - as a person so bleak and uncharismatic you won't recognise in a crowd. But you can change an egg's features, you can paint a face on it and like magic it will turn into something completely different. That, in connection to being an actor so fine to bring the eggs to life was the strength which made Guinness famous; probably he wore more heavy make-up during his career than Boris Karloff!
Born in London in 1914 as an illegitimate child, he never knew his father and never developed an emotional relationship to his mother - which probably made him the quiet, adaptable "egg" actor he became. He started appearing on the stage in the Thirties, soon promoted by John Gielgud, and while soon he was playing leading parts in Shakespeare plays for the Old Vic (and successfully so), he never really left a mark on the Bard's list of Great Shakespearians. During that time, he also adapted Dickens' "Great Expectations" for the stage and played Herbert Pocket in it. David Lean supposedly saw the play and then did cast him in the same role in his GREAT EXPECTATIONS in 1946, Guinness' first on screen credit.
The movie role drawing attention to Guinness was hidden behind a false nose and a huge beard and lots of make-up. In 1948, he was Fagin in Lean's OLIVER TWIST, and the following year he made his first movie for Ealing, playing six eccentric members of the d'Ascoyne family murdered by Dennis Price in the morbidly funny KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949; dir. Robert Hamer). Either for Lean or for Ealing, Guinness continued to make some of his best and best-known movies: the splendid THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951; dir. Charles Crichton), THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951; dir. Alexander Mackendrick), the point-perfect THE LADYKILLERS (1955; dir. Alexander Mackendrick) for Ealing, ending his connection with the studio with BARNACLE BILL (1957; dir. Charles Frend), not a very good comedy, but with Guinness playing not only the lead but also the ghosts of his ancestors; THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957), which won him an Academy Award, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1961), where he was angry for not being offered the lead, DR. ZHIVAGO (1965) and A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984) for David Lean.
Other memorable fine performances Guinness delivered in OUR MAN IN HAVANNA (1959; dir. Carol Reed), THE COMEDIANS (1967; dir. Peter Glenville), CROMWELL (1970; dir. Ken Hughes) and the blind Butler Bensonmum in MURDER BY DEATH (1976; dir. Robert Moore).
A rise in popularity to a young audience which probably never before heard of him came when he played Obi Wan Kenobi in STAR WARS (1977; dir George Lucas) and its sequels. He loathed the movies and mostly turned down requests for autographs from fans (often simply throwing their mail into the bin), but with pleasure watched the incoming royalties, for he cleverly asked for 2% of Lucas' share of the box office takings. It made Guinness a rather well-off actor. Peter Cushing, who was originally offered the part of Obi Wan, had to accept the part of Grand Moff Tarkin instead, being out of the game after the first movie, and being paid a regular fee - but then, asking for a share would most likely never have crossed Cushing's mind.
As far as I'm concerned, Guinness' finest hour came on TV, when he was asked to play a "Man without Qualities", someone so quiet and uncharismatic he could mix with the crowd and would be unrecogisable - the perfect "egg" part. He played the master spy, George Smiley, in TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (1979; dir. John Irvin) and SMILEY'S PEOPLE (1982; dir. Simon Langton).
Guinness, who was knighted in 1959, died from liver cancer in 2000.
The picture shows Guinness as Smiley in SMILEY'S PEOPLE.
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE aka. Alec Guinness de Cuffe 2nd April 1914 – 5th August 2000
