Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness

Birth : 1914-04-02, Marylebone, London, England, UK

Death : 2000-08-05

History

Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE (2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai. His is known for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy. He also played Prince Feisal in Lawrence of Arabia and George Smiley in the TV adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Profile

Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness

Movies

Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return
Self - Obi-Wan Kenobi (uncredited) (archive footage)
A new documentary that showcases the making of the epic limited series. Features never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and visits to the creature shop and props department.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Obi-Wan Kenobi (archive voice)
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.
Star Wars: Evolution of the Lightsaber Duel
Self
Though lightsabers have been a force in the Star Wars galaxy since George Lucas’ original film, the weapon’s on-screen presence evolved throughout both cinematic trilogies and into Star Wars: The Force Awakens. SportsCenter is tracing the lightsaber’s lineage through the films, and a new trailer for the special will definitely delight any fan’s inner Star Wars Kid.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Obi-Wan Kenobi (archive sound) (uncredited)
Thirty years after defeating the Galactic Empire, Han Solo and his allies face a new threat from the evil Kylo Ren and his army of Stormtroopers.
Grace Kelly: Destiny of a Princess
Self - Actor (archive footage)
In 1956, actress and Hollywood star Grace Kelly (1929-82), then at the height of her film career, unexpectedly dropped everything to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Jinx, an American journalist and friend of the future princess, accompanied her on her journey to the wedding and covered the sensational event.
Star Wars: Deleted Magic
Self (archive footage)
This is a very interesting Star Wars documentary about the making of the first Star Wars film (and to a lesser extent Empire and Jedi) including a look at some of the deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, and notes on subtle things that you might have never seen or noticed before.
When Star Wars Ruled the World
Obi-Wan Kenobi (archive footage)
A VH1 television special wherein the cast discuss the making of the films and what made the franchise a phenomenon.
The Story of Star Wars
Obi-Wan Kenobi (archive footage)
The Skywalker family is at the heart of the Star Wars saga. Now hear the inside story of Luke and Anakin Skywalker from the characters who witnessed it all: the famous droid duo C-3PO and R2-D2. Episodes IV,V and VI are explored in "The Story of Luke Skywalker," which follows the young man escaping from his daily chores on Tatooine to his becoming a hero in the Rebal Alliance. In "The Story of Anakin Skywalker," you'll go behind the mask of the greatest Star Wars villain and discover how Darth Vader started life as a young Podracing Champ on Tatooine and later became a headstrong young Jedi seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. With clips from the Star Wars films, C-3PO and R2-D2 take you on an hour-long journey through the saga and prepare you for the explosive final chapter: Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
The Making of 'Lawrence of Arabia'
Self (archive footage)
The Making of 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'
Self (archive footage)
Eskimo Day
James
Comedy drama about the trials and tribulations of three sets of parents as they finally realise that their children have grown up and reluctantly they have to let them enroll at Cambridge University.
Mute Witness
The Reaper
Billy is mute, but it hasn't kept her from becoming a successful makeup artist. While in Russia, working on a film directed by her sister's boyfriend, Andy, Billy finds herself trapped in the studio one night and is horrified to see a snuff film being made. Billy escapes and, with the help of her sister, Kate, alerts authorities about what she saw. Unfortunately, in doing so, she makes an enemy of the Russian mafia, who funded the snuff film.
A Foreign Field
Amos
Nostalgic comic drama in which Cyril and Amos, two veterans of the Normandy landings, return to France to visit the grave of their wartime buddy. They encounter Waldo, an American on a similar mission, and the meeting sparks memories of an old girlfriend from the past. With the mysterious American lady Lisa in their wake, Cyril and Waldo decide to try and track her down.
Tales from Hollywood
Heinrich Mann
A slightly ironical description of the colony of German artists in Los Angeles, who had to leave their country during the Nazi-regime. A young playwriter (von Horvath) joins them and finds out, that there are gaps between the artistical attitudes and the real live behavior of authors like Thomas or Heinrich Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger or Bertold Brecht.
Kafka
The Chief Clerk
Kafka, an insurance worker gets embroiled in an underground group after a co-worker is murdered. The underground group is responsible for bombings all over town, attempting to thwart a secret organization that controls the major events in society. He eventually penetrates the secret organization and must confront them.
A Handful of Dust
Mr. Todd
English aristocrat Tony Last welcomes tragedy into his life when he invites John Beaver to visit his vast estate. There Beaver makes the acquaintance of Tony's wife, Brenda. Together, they continue their relationship in a series of bedroom assignations in London. Trusting to a fault, Tony is unaware that anything is amiss until his wife suddenly asks for a divorce. With his life in turmoil, Tony goes on a haphazard journey to South America.
Little Dorrit
William Dorrit
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. A film in originally released in two parts.
Monsignor Quixote
Father Quixote
Sir Alec Guiness stars with Leo McKern in the story of a friendship between a Catholic priest and a Communist Mayor. Together they travel from their remote village to Madrid and back exploring their friendship, the demands of belief and constancy of faith. This lavish production filmed entirely on location captures the wit, warmth, and vitality that make the original novel by Graham Greene a unique work of literature.
Grace Kelly: The American Princess
Thanks
Documentary - She came from a wealthy and competitive Philadelphia family, but the life of well-brought up society held little appeal for this acclaimed beauty. She left for New York City and worked hard as a model, stage actor and TV player. And then she was discovered by Hollywood. In less than four years she was acknowledged as one of movie's most sought after stars and an Academy-Award winner, playing opposite some of the greatest leading men of her time. Suddenly, like a modern-day fairy tale, Grace Kelly turned her back on it all - to become Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco.
David Lean: A Life in Film
Self
A documentary video that profiles the life of David Lean, the director of Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia.
A Passage to India
Professor Godbole
Set during the period of growing influence of the Indian independence movement in the British Raj, the story begins with the arrival in India of a British woman, Miss Adela Quested, who is joining her fiancé, a city magistrate named Ronny Heaslop. She and Ronny's mother, Mrs. Moore, befriend an Indian doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed.
Edwin
Sir Fennimore Truscott
Touching comedy about a high court judge, now retired to his English countryside home, who resolves to end years of suspicion about his wife's fidelity and the true paternity of their son.
Return of the Jedi
Ben 'Obi-Wan' Kenobi
Luke Skywalker leads a mission to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, while the Emperor seeks to destroy the Rebellion once and for all with a second dreaded Death Star.
Lovesick
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud's ghost advises a married New York psychiatrist in love with a patient.
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Earl of Dorincourt
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back
Obi Wan Kenobi
Hosted by Mark Hamill, this revealing documentary offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the amazing special effects that transformed George Lucas’ vision for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back into reality!
Raise the Titanic
John Bigalow
To obtain a supply of a rare mineral, a ship raising operation is conducted for the only known source, the Titanic.
The Empire Strikes Back
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The epic saga continues as Luke Skywalker, in hopes of defeating the evil Galactic Empire, learns the ways of the Jedi from aging master Yoda. But Darth Vader is more determined than ever to capture Luke. Meanwhile, rebel leader Princess Leia, cocky Han Solo, Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are thrown into various stages of capture, betrayal and despair.
The Art of Film: The Many Roles of Alec Guinness
A documentary about the film roles of British actor Alec Guinness. Volume 8 in a series produced by Janus Films.
The Star Wars Holiday Special
Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi (archive footage) (uncredited)
Luke Skywalker and Han Solo battle evil Imperial forces to help Chewbacca reach his imperiled family on the Wookiee planet - in time for Life Day, their most important day of the year!
The Making of Star Wars
Himself
Learn the incredible behind-the-scenes story of how the original Star Wars movie was brought to the big screen in this fascinating documentary hosted by C-3PO and R2-D2 which includes interviews with George Lucas and appearances by Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
Star Wars
Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi
Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing captain Han Solo team together with the loveable robot duo R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the beautiful princess and restore peace and justice in the Empire.
Murder by Death
Bensonmum
Lionel Twain invites the world's five greatest detectives to a 'dinner and murder'. Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false identities and more plot turns and twists than are decently allowed.
Caesar and Cleopatra
Caesar
Adaptation of the play by Bernard Shaw.
The Gift of Friendship
Jocelyn Broome
Elderly novelist asks disliked guest to be literary editor.
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
Adolf Hitler
Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Papst Innozenz III.
In his delirium from his return from war, Francesco Bernardone goes back in his memories to the days when he lived for parties and carnal pleasures. He slowly recovers, but after the illness he is no longer the Francesco that everybody knew. Instead of spending hours in taverns, he meditates on the beauty of God's creatures, soon renouncing his riches and his family with plans to rebuild an abandoned church and his life.
Scrooge
Jacob Marley's Ghost
A musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic ghost tale starring Albert Finney.
Cromwell
King Charles I
Disgusted with the policies of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell plans to take his family to the New World. But on the eve of their departure, Cromwell is drawn into the tangled web of religion and politics that will result in the English Civil War.
The Ealing Comedies or Kind Hearts and Overdrafts
Self
The story of the men and women who produced a series of film comedies that were so original and funny that they put Ealing on the map.
Twelfth Night
Malvolio
Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ralph Richardson and Joan Plowright star in this merry on-stage mix-up of identity, gender and love in Tony Award-winner John Dexter’s production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Originally broadcast on Britain’s ITV, this classic performance captures all the slapstick, puns and double entendres that have amazed and amused audiences for over four hundred years.
The Comedians
Major H. O. Jones
American and British tourists get caught up in political unrest in Haiti.
The Comedians in Africa
Self (uncredited)
Behind the scenes short documentary about the cast and crew during the filming of The Comedians.
The Quiller Memorandum
Pol
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Hotel Paradiso
Benedict Boniface
Monsieur Feydeau has writer's block, and he needs a new play. But he takes an opportunity to observe the upper class of 1900 Paris - Monsieur Boniface with a domineering wife, and the next-door neglectful husband Henri with a beautiful but ignored wife Marcelle. Henri traces architectural anomalies (most ghost sounds are drains), and plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso; but this hotel is the assignation spot of Marcelle and Boniface. One wife, two husbands, a nephew, and the perky Boniface maid, all at this 'by the hour' hotel, and consummation of the affair is, to say the least, severely compromised (not the least by a police raid). All of this under Feydeau's eye, and his play is the 'success fou' of the next season.
Pasternak
Himself
Using still pictures and newsreel footage, this short film tells the life story of Russian author Boris Pasternak, who was forced by the Russian government to refuse the 1958 Nobel Prize in literature for his novel Dr. Zhivago.
Doctor Zhivago
Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Situation Hopeless -- But Not Serious
Wilhelm Frick
A lonely German clerk captures two American flyers and keeps them as prisoners in his basement long after WWII has ended. Director Gottfried Reinhardt's 1965 comedy stars Alec Guinness, Robert Redford and Michael Connors.
The Fall of the Roman Empire
Marcus Aurelius
In the year 180 A.D. Germanic tribes are about to invade the Roman empire from the north. In the midst of this crisis ailing emperor Marcus Aurelius has to make a decission about his successor between his son Commodus, who is obsessed by power, and the loyal general Gaius Livius.
Lawrence of Arabia
Prince Feisal
The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.
H.M.S. Defiant
Captain Crawford
Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.
A Majority of One
Koichi Asano
A gentle love story about a Japanese businessman and widower, and a Brooklyn widow. But before a happy ending can ensue, they must learn again the lessons of tolerance, kindness and forgiveness.
Tunes of Glory
Maj. Jock Sinclair, D.S.O., M.M.
Following World War II in peacetime Scotland, brigade headquarters replaces commanding officer Major Jock Sinclair, a boisterous battalion leader, with the strict, temperamental Lieutenant Colonel Basil Barrow. Resentful toward his replacement, Sinclair undermines Barrow's authority and damages his successor's reputation among the soldiers. Barrow faces an uphill battle in regaining the discipline and respect of his battalion.
Our Man in Havana
Jim Wormold
Expatriate Englishman Jim Wormold lives in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter. Owning a poorly-performing business, he accepts an offer from the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba. Wormold hasn't got a clue where to start, so he decides to manufacture a list of agents and provide fictional tales for his masters in London, and is soon known as the best agent in the Western Hemisphere. However, it all unravels when the local police decode his cables and start rounding up his 'network' and he learns that he's the target of a group out to kill him.
The Scapegoat
John Barratt / Jacques De Gue
An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.
The Horse's Mouth
Gulley Jimson
Gulley Jimson is a boorish aging artist recently released from prison. A swindler in search of his next art project, he hunkers down in the penthouse of would-be patrons the Beeders while they go on an extended vacation; he paints a mural on their wall, pawns their valuables and, along with the sculptor Abel, inadvertently smashes a large hole in their floor. Jimson's next project is an even larger wall in an abandoned church.
The Horse's Mouth
Writer
Gulley Jimson is a boorish aging artist recently released from prison. A swindler in search of his next art project, he hunkers down in the penthouse of would-be patrons the Beeders while they go on an extended vacation; he paints a mural on their wall, pawns their valuables and, along with the sculptor Abel, inadvertently smashes a large hole in their floor. Jimson's next project is an even larger wall in an abandoned church.
The Rise and Fall of a Jungle Giant
Self
A behind-the-scenes look at the building of the bridge in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and the preparations for its destruction.
Barnacle Bill
Captain William Horatio Ambrose
A seasick sea captain commands an amusement pier despite local opposition. Released in the U.S. as 'All at Sea'
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Col. Nicholson
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson , the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
The Swan
Prince Albert
Princess Beatrice's days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant cousin when he pays a surprise visit to their palace. Prince Albert has searched all over Europe for a bride and he's bored by the whole courtship routine. He is more interested in the estate's dairy than Alexandra's rose garden. And then he starts playing football with the tutor and Alexandra's brothers. Invite the tutor to the ball that night and watch how gracefully Alexandra dances with him.
The Ladykillers
Professor Marcus
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
The Prisoner
The Cardinal
A cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. He is a popular hero of his people, for his resistance against the Nazis during the war and his resistance when his country again fell to a totalitarian conqueror. In prison, his interrogator is determined to extract a confession of guilt, and thus destroy his power over his people.
To Paris with Love
Sir Edgar Fraser
A father and son go to Paris to help each other find love.
The Stratford Adventure
Himself
This short film depicts how a small Canadian city, bearing the name of Stratford and by a river Avon, created its own renowned Shakespearean theatre. The film tells how the idea grew, how a famous British director, international stars and Canadian talent were recruited, and how the Stratford Shakespearean Festival finally became a triumphant reality.
Father Brown
Father Brown / The Detective
Works of art are disappearing, stolen by a master thief, a master of disguise. Father Brown has two goals: to catch the thief and to save his soul.
The Captain's Paradise
Captain Henry St. James
Mediterranean ferryboat captain Henry St James has things well organized - a loving and very English wife Maud in Gibraltar, and the loving if rather more hot-blooded Mistress, Nita in Tangiers. A perfect life. As long as neither woman decides to follow him to the other port.
Malta Story
Flight Lt. Peter Ross
In 1942 Britain was clinging to the island of Malta since it was critical to keeping Allied supply lines open. The Axis also wanted it for their own supply lines. Plenty of realistic reenactments and archival combat footage as the British are beseiged and try to fight off the Luftwaffe. Against this background, a RAF reconnaissance photographer's romance with a local girl is endangered as he tries to plot enemy movements.
The Card
Edward Henry 'Denry' Machin
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing - some honest, some not quite so. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman...
The Man in the White Suit
Sidney Stratton
The unassuming, nebbishy inventor Sidney Stratton creates a miraculous fabric that will never be dirty or worn out. Clearly he can make a fortune selling clothes made of the material, but may cause a crisis in the process. After all, once someone buys one of his suits they won't ever have to fix them or buy another one, and the clothing industry will collapse overnight. Nevertheless, Sidney is determined to put his invention on the market, forcing the clothing factory bigwigs to resort to more desperate measures...
The Lavender Hill Mob
Henry 'Dutch' Holland
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.
The Mudlark
Benjamin Disraeli
It's 1875 and a young street urchin wants to see Queen Victoria...
Last Holiday
George Bird
George Bird is a salesman of agricultural machinery who finds out that he hasn't long to live. On his doctor's advice, he goes to an exclusive seaside resort to spend his savings on one last holiday.
A Run for Your Money
Whimple
Two Welsh coal-mining brothers win a trip to London to claim a monetary prize. They are supposed to meet a newspaper reporter who will be their escort. Instead, the brothers are launched into an adventure with some London riff-raff. It is up to the reporter to look out for the brothers, and what a job it turns out to be!
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The D'Ascoyne Family: The Duke / The Banker / The Parson / The General / The Admiral / Young Ascoyne / Young Henry / Lady Agatha
When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
Oliver Twist
Fagin
When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.
Great Expectations
Herbert Pocket
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Evensong
W.W.I. soldier in concert audience (uncredited)
Loosely based on the story of the singer Nellie Melba...