Alec Guinness

1914–2000 | British actor, writer

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

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

Photograph from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) featuring Alec Guinness (as George Smiley) (1) — Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) photograph (1) | 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

- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
- Tonight at 7pm on Sky Cinema Star Wars HD
- Tomorrow at 2pm on Sky Cinema Star Wars HD
- 29^th February at 12pm on Sky Cinema Hits HD
- A rebel princess in a distant galaxy escapes, and with the help of her robots and a young farmer overcomes the threatening forces of evil.
- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Tonight at 9.15pm on Sky Cinema Star Wars HD
- Tomorrow at 4.15pm on Sky Cinema Star Wars HD
- The Rebel Alliance takes refuge from Darth Vader on a frozen planet.
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- Sunday at 6.35am on Sky Cinema Greats HD
- An adventurer’s life with the Arabs, told in flashbacks after his accidental death in the thirties.
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- Tuesday at 7am on Sky Cinema Action HD
- Tuesday at 4.15pm on Sky Cinema Action HD
- British POWs in Burma are employed by the Japanese to build a bridge; meanwhile British agents seek to destroy it.
- Tunes of Glory (1960)
- Tuesday at 2.55pm on Sony Movies Action
- Tuesday at 3.55pm on Sony Movies Action
- The new disciplinarian CO of a Highland regiment crosses swords with his lax, hard-drinking predecessor.
- The Ladykillers (1955)
- Thursday at 4.35am 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.
- Malta Story (1953)
- 2^nd March at 4.35pm on Film4 HD
- An English flyer is involved in the defence of Malta during World War II.

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.