On
This Day…
Sir
Alec Guiness was born on this day in 1914.
Sir
Alec Guinness, CH,
CBE
(2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career
on the stage he was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including
Kind Hearts and
Coronets in which he played eight different characters. However, he
was probably best known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great
Expectations (1946), Fagin
in Oliver Twist
(1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on
the River Kwai (1957, for which he won the Academy Award
for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence of
Arabia (1962), Yevgraf in Doctor
Zhivago (1965), and Professor Godbole in A Passage to
India (1984). In later years, he achieved fame with younger
audiences for his role as Obi-Wan
Kenobi in George Lucas’s
original Star Wars
trilogy.
Trivia:
Reportedly hated working on Star Wars:
Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) so much, Guinness claims that
Obi-Wan's death was his idea as a means to limit his involvement in the film.
Guinness also claims to throw away all Star Wars related fan mail without even
opening it.
In
his last book of memoirs, "A Positively Final Appearance", he
expressed a devotion to the television series "The Simpsons"
(1989).
In
certain prints of The Bridge on
the River Kwai (1957), a film in which he won the Academy Award for
Best Actor, his last name is misspelled "Guiness".
His
name is an anagram of "genuine class".
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