Alec Guinness

British actor, writer (1914–2000) | The Man in the White Suit (1951), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Distinguished British stage actor, who in the late 1940s started a spectacular film career first as a master of disguise, then as a young hero and later as any character from Hitler to Obi Wan Kenobi

Mini Biography

Alec Guinness received an honorary Oscar in 1979 ‘for advancing the art of screen acting’.

Latest Alec Guinness Pictures

Screenshot from The Quiller Memorandum (1966) (1) featuring Alec Guinness as Pol — The Quiller Memorandum (1966) screenshot (1) | Alec Guinness

Main title from The Man in the White Suit (1951) (10) featuring Alec Guinness as Sidney Stratton and Cecil Parker as Alan Birnley — The Man in the White Suit (1951) photograph (10) | Guinness, Parker

Photograph from The Man in the White Suit (1951) (9) featuring Alec Guinness as Sidney Stratton — The Man in the White Suit (1951) photograph (9) | Alec Guinness

Photograph from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) featuring Terence Rigby (as Roy Bland) and Alec Guinness (as George Smiley) — Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) photograph | Rigby, Alec Guinness

Select Alec Guinness Filmography

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Personal Details

Born

Died

Born

Alec Guinness was born (as Alec Guinness de Cuffe) in Marylebone, London on 2^nd April, 1914.
Died

Alec Guinness died of liver cancer in Midhurst, West Sussex on 5^th August, 2000, aged 86.

Watch Alec Guinness on British television

- Tunes of Glory (1960)
- Tomorrow at 2.50am on Sony Movies Classic
- Tomorrow at 3.50am on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- Friday at 2.55am on Sony Movies Classic
- Friday at 3.55am on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- Sunday at 2.55am on Sony Movies Classic
- Sunday at 3.55am on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- 23^rd April at 2.55am on Sony Movies Classic
- 23^rd April at 3.55am on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- The new disciplinarian CO of a Highland regiment crosses swords with his lax, hard-drinking predecessor.
- The Ladykillers (1955)
- Tomorrow at 1.05pm on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- Thursday at 3am on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- Monday at 4.45pm on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- 20^th April at 1.45am on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- An old lady takes in a sinister lodger, who with his four friends commits a robbery. When she finds out, they plot to kill her, but are hoist with their own petards.
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- Tomorrow at 2.40pm on Sky Cinema Select HD
- British POWs in Burma are employed by the Japanese to build a bridge; meanwhile British agents seek to destroy it.
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
- Thursday at 8.15am on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- Friday at 4am on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- Saturday at 3.40pm on London Live
- Sunday at 11.55am on 5Select
- Sunday at 1pm on 5Select
- Monday at 1pm on London Live
- 23^rd April at 6.40am on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- 23^rd April at 1pm on London Live
- 24^th April at 4am on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- An impecunious heir eliminates eight D’Ascoynes who stand between him and the family fortune.
- Our Man in Havana (1959)
- Friday at 6.45pm on Sony Movies Classic
- Friday at 7.45pm on Sony Movies Classic
- Friday at 7.45pm on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- Friday at 8.45pm on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- Saturday at 2.45pm on Sony Movies Classic
- Saturday at 3.45pm on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- Saturday at 3.45pm on Sony Movies Classic
- Saturday at 4.45pm on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- Monday at 3.40pm on Sony Movies Classic
- Monday at 4.40pm on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- Monday at 4.40pm on Sony Movies Classic
- Monday at 5.40pm on Sony Movies Classic Plus 1
- A British vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana allows himself to be recruited as a spy, and wishes he hadn’t.
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- Sunday at 1.10pm on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- An adventurer’s life with the Arabs, told in flashbacks after his accidental death in the thirties.

Alec Guinness News

- Alec Guinness letters and diaries sold to the British Library
- 10^th February, 2013
- Diaries and letters of the British theatre knight, Alec Guinness, have been acquired by the British Library.