Guinness was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe at 155Lauderdale Mansions South,[1]Lauderdale Road, inMaida Vale, London.[2] His mother's maiden name was Agnes Cuff; she was born on 8 December 1890 to Edward Charles Cuff, a sometime lifeguard at Bournemouth who had served in the Royal Navy,[3] and Mary Ann, née Benfield, of a family of stonemasons and publicans. On Guinness's birth certificate, his mother's name is given as Agnes de Cuffe; the infant's name (where first names only are placed) is given as Alec Guinness, and there are no details for the father.[4]
The identity of Guinness's father has never been officially confirmed.[5] Agnes Cuff had worked at Cowes on the Isle of Wight as a barmaid at theRoyal Yacht Squadron clubhouse at the time of theCowes Regatta in 1913, which was attended by several members of theGuinness family includingEdward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, and his sonsErnest andWalter. Members of the Guinness family claimed a "distinct resemblance" between Alec and one or other of the Guinnesses at Cowes that year;Honor Guinness, who made Alec's acquaintance in 1950 and invited him to tea with "his cousin", later visiting Alec's family with photo albums and diaries to point out the similarities she perceived, believed either her uncle Ernest or his brother Walter ("a celebrated seducer") was Alec's father, while her cousinLindy considered Alec closely resembled her father,Loel.[6]
From 1875, underEnglish law, when the birth of an illegitimate child was registered, the father's name could be entered on the certificate only if he was present and gave his consent. Guinness himself believed that his father was a Scottish banker, Andrew Geddes (1861–1928), who paid for Guinness's boarding-school education at Pembroke Lodge, in Southbourne, and Roborough, inEastbourne. Geddes—who with a "round face and sticking-out ears" bore a resemblance to Guinness and believed himself to be his father—[7] occasionally visited Guinness and his mother, posing as an uncle.[8] Guinness's mother later had a three-year marriage to a Scottish army captain named Stiven, whose behaviour was often erratic or even violent.[9][10]
Guinness first worked writing advertising copy. His first job in the theatre was on his 20th birthday (2 April 1934), while he was a student at theFay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art, in the playLibel, which opened at the old King's Theatre, Hammersmith, and then transferred to theWest End'sPlayhouse, where his status was raised from a walk-on to understudying two lines, and his salary increased to £1 a week.[12][13] He appeared at theNew Theatre in 1936 at the age of 22, playing the role ofOsric inJohn Gielgud's successful production ofHamlet. Also in 1936, Guinness signed on with theOld Vic, where he was cast in a series of classic roles.[14] In the later 1930s, he took classes at theLondon Theatre Studio.[15] In 1939, he took over forMichael Redgrave as Charleston in a road-show production ofRobert Ardrey'sThunder Rock.[16] At the Old Vic, Guinness worked with many actors and actresses who became his friends and frequent co-stars in the future, including Gielgud,Ralph Richardson,Peggy Ashcroft,Anthony Quayle, andJack Hawkins. An early influence was film starStan Laurel, whom Guinness admired.[17]
Guinness continued playingShakespearean roles throughout his career. In 1937, he played Aumerle inRichard II and Lorenzo inThe Merchant of Venice under the direction of John Gielgud. He starred in a 1938 production ofHamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.[14] He also appeared asRomeo in a production ofRomeo and Juliet (1939),Malvolio inTwelfth Night, and as Exeter inHenry V in 1937, both opposite Laurence Olivier, and Ferdinand inThe Tempest, opposite Gielgud asProspero. In 1939, he adaptedCharles Dickens's novelGreat Expectations for the stage, playing Herbert Pocket. The play was a success. One of its viewers was a young British film editor,David Lean, who later had Guinness reprise his role in Lean's1946 film adaptation of the novel.[18]
During the war, Guinness was granted leave to appear in the Broadway production ofTerence Rattigan's stage playFlare Path, aboutRAF Bomber Command, with Guinness playing the role of Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham.[23]
Invited by his friendTyrone Guthrie to join the premiere season of theStratford Festival of Canada, Guinness lived for a brief time inStratford, Ontario. On 13 July 1953, Guinness spoke the first lines of the first play produced by the festival, Shakespeare'sRichard III: "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York."[25][26]
Guinness made his speaking debut in film in the dramaGreat Expectations (1946). He was initially mainly associated with theEaling comedies, and particularly for playing eight characters inKind Hearts and Coronets (1949).[29] His other films from this period includedOliver Twist (1948),The Lavender Hill Mob,The Man in the White Suit (both 1951) andThe Ladykillers (1955), with all four ranked among the Best British films.[30] In 1950, he portrayed 19th-century British prime ministerBenjamin Disraeli inThe Mudlark, which included delivering an uninterrupted seven-minute speech in Parliament.[31] In 1952, directorRonald Neame cast Guinness in his first romantic lead role, oppositePetula Clark inThe Card. In 1951, a poll of British exhibitors identified Guinness as the top box office attraction in British films and fifth in international films, based on box office returns.[32] Guinness was idolised byPeter Sellers—who himself became famous for inhabiting a variety of characters in a film—with Sellers's first major film role starring alongside his idol inThe Ladykillers.[33]
Guinness's other notable film roles of this period includedThe Swan (1956) withGrace Kelly, in her penultimate film role, andThe Horse's Mouth (1958), in which Guinness played the part of drunken painter Gulley Jimson, and for which he also wrote the screenplay, which was nominated for anAcademy Award. Guiness' desire to makeThe Horse's Mouth led to a break with the Rank Organisation who refused to fund it, with the actor claiming John Davis, head of Rank, “told me that I was a funny man and if I ever made a serious film it would finish me off.”[34]
Despite a difficult and often hostile relationship, Lean, referring to Guinness as "my good luck charm", continued to cast Guinness in character roles in his later films:Arab leaderPrince Faisal inLawrence of Arabia (1962); the title character's half-brother, Bolshevik leader Yevgraf, inDoctor Zhivago and Indian mystic Professor Godbole inA Passage to India. He was also offered a role in Lean'sRyan's Daughter (1970) but declined. At that time, Guinness "mistrusted" Lean and considered the formerly close relationship to be strained—although he recalled, at Lean's funeral, that the famed director had been "charming and affable".[37] Guinness appeared in five Lean films that were ranked in theBritish Film Institute's50 greatest British films of the 20th century: 3rd (Lawrence of Arabia), 5th (Great Expectations), 11th (The Bridge on the River Kwai), 27th (Doctor Zhivago) and 46th (Oliver Twist).[38]
Guinness's role asObi-Wan Kenobi in the originalStar Wars trilogy, beginning in 1977 withStar Wars, brought him worldwide recognition to a new generation, as well as Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. In letters to his friends, Guinness described the film as "fairy-tale rubbish" but the film's sense of moral good – and the studio's doubling of his initial salary offer – appealed to him and he agreed to take the part of Kenobi on the condition that he would not have to do any publicity to promote the film.[39]
He initially negotiated a deal for 2% of the film's royalties paid to the director,George Lucas, who, upon the warm reception of the film with the press and film critics, and as a gesture of good-will for the positive amendments and suggestions Guinness proposed to the screenplay for the film, offered Guinness an additional 0.5%, bringing his share to 2.5%. When Guinness enquired about the share with the film's producerGary Kurtz, and asked for a written agreement so as to codify his earnings, Kurtz revised Lucas's offering down by 0.25%, bringing Guinness's final, agreed-upon share of royalties paid to the director to 2.25% (Lucas received one-fifth of the overall box office takings, which would take Guinness's share of the overall box office to 1.80%).[40][41]
Upon his first viewing of the film, Guinness wrote in his diary, "It's a pretty staggering film as spectacle and technically brilliant. Exciting, very noisy, and warm-hearted. The battle scenes at the end go on for five minutes too long, I feel, and some of the dialogue is excruciating and much of it is lost in noise, but it remains a vivid experience."[42]
Guinness soon became unhappy with being identified with the part and expressed dismay at the fan following that theStar Wars trilogy attracted. In the DVD commentary of the originalStar Wars, Lucas says that Guinness was not happy with the script rewrite in which Obi-Wan is killed. Guinness said in a 1999 interview that it was actually his idea to kill off Obi-Wan, persuading Lucas that it would make him a stronger character and that Lucas agreed to the idea. Guinness stated in the interview, "What I didn't tell Lucas was that I just couldn't go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I'd had enough of the mumbo jumbo." He went on to say that he "shrivelled up" every timeStar Wars was mentioned to him.[43]
Although Guinness disliked the fame that followed and he did not hold the work in high esteem,[42] Lucas and fellow cast membersMark Hamill,Harrison Ford,Carrie Fisher,Kenny Baker, andAnthony Daniels have spoken highly of his courtesy and professionalism, on and off the set. Lucas credited him with inspiring the cast and crew to work harder, saying that Guinness contributed significantly to achieving completion of the filming. Guinness was quoted as saying that the royalties he obtained from working on the films gave him "no complaints; let me leave it by saying I can live for the rest of my life in the reasonably modest way I am now used to, that I have no debts and I can afford to refuse work that doesn't appeal to me." In his autobiography,Blessings in Disguise, Guinness tells an imaginary interviewer "Blessed beStar Wars", regarding the income it provided.[44] Guinness appeared in the film's sequelsThe Empire Strikes Back (1980) andReturn of the Jedi (1983), as aforce ghost apparition to the trilogy's main characterLuke Skywalker.
Guinness married the artist, playwright and actress Merula Silvia Salaman (1914–2000) in 1938; in 1940, they had a son,Matthew Guinness, who later became an actor. From the 1950s the family lived at Kettlebrook Meadows, nearSteep Marsh in Hampshire. The house itself was designed by Merula's brother Eusty Salaman.[60][61] His great-grandsonNesta Guinness-Walker is a professional footballer.[62]
A biography claimed that Guinness was arrested and fined 10guineas (£10.50) for ahomosexual act in a public lavatory inLiverpool in 1946. Piers Paul Read, who wrote his authorised biography, did not believe it happened.[63] Another biography suggests: "The rumour is possibly a conflation of stories about Alec's 'cottaging' and the arrest of John Gielgud, in October 1953, in a public lavatory inChelsea, after dining with the Guinnesses at St. Peter's Square."[64] This suggestion was not made until April 2001, eight months after his death, when aBBC News Online article related that new books claimed that Guinness wasbisexual, that he had kept his sexuality private from the public eye and that only his closest friends and family members knew about his sexual orientation.[65]
While serving in theRoyal Navy, Guinness had planned to become anAnglicanpriest. In 1954, while he was filmingFather Brown inBurgundy, Guinness, who was in costume as a Catholic priest, was mistaken for a real priest by a local child. Guinness was far from fluent in French, and the child apparently did not notice that Guinness did not understand him but took his hand and chattered while the two strolled; the child then waved and trotted off.[66] The confidence and affection the clerical attire appeared to inspire in the boy left a deep impression on the actor.[67] When their son was ill with polio at the age of 11, Guinness began visiting a church to pray.[68] A few years later, in 1956, Guinness converted to theCatholic Church. His wife, who was of paternalSephardi Jewish descent,[69] followed suit in 1957 while he was inCeylon filmingThe Bridge on the River Kwai, and she informed him only after the event.[70]
Guinness told a story in a media interview and wrote in his memoir that he metJames Dean and predicted Dean's death one week before he was killed in a car accident in 1955.[71][72] In interviews shortly after Dean's death, Guinness recalled that all of Dean's friends had issued similar warnings because he drove too fast.[73]
Every morning, Guinness recited verse eight fromPsalm 143, "Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning".[74]
Guinness died on the night of 5 August 2000 at King Edward VII's Hospital inMidhurst,West Sussex.[75][76] He had been diagnosed withprostate cancer in February 2000, and withliver cancer two days before he died. His wife, who died two months later on 18 October 2000, also had liver cancer.[77] His funeral was held at St. Laurence Catholic Church inPetersfield, Hampshire, and he was interred at Petersfield Cemetery.[78][79]
In 2013 theBritish Library acquired the personal archive of Guinness consisting of over 900 letters, manuscripts for plays, and 100 volumes of diaries from the late 1930s to his death.[80]
For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted Guinness among the most popular stars in Britain at the box office via an annual poll in theMotion Picture Herald.
1951: most popular British star in British films and fifth in international films.[32]
Guinness wrote three volumes of a best-selling autobiography, beginning withBlessings in Disguise in 1985, followed byMy Name Escapes Me in 1996, andA Positively Final Appearance in 1999. He recorded each of them as an audiobook. Shortly after his death, Lady Guinness asked the couple's close friend and fellow Catholic, novelistPiers Paul Read, to write Guinness's official biography. It was published in 2002.
^ab"Alec Guinness."Archived 6 November 2018 at theWayback MachineHollywood Walk of Fame (Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Hollywood, California), 2011. Retrieved: 22 June 2011.
^abc'Guinness, Alec (1914–2000)',The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK; viewed 22 June 2011, fromCredo reference(subscription required)Archived 30 April 2024 at theWayback Machine
^Marshall, Herbert. "Obituary: Robert Ardrey (1907–1980)."Bulletin of the Center for Soviet & East European Studies Spring 1980. pp. 4–6. Print
^On 3 June 1961, Guinness sent aletter to Stan LaurelArchived 11 December 2006 at theWayback Machine, acknowledging that he must have unconsciously modeled his portrayal of Sir Andrew Aguecheek as he imagined Laurel might have done. Guinness was 23 at the time he was performing inTwelfth Night, around 1937, by which time Laurel had become an international movie star.
^le Carré, John (8 March 2002).Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A Conversation with John le Carré (DVD). Disc 1.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
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