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Alec Guinness (April 2, 1914 London, England - August 5, 2000) is the English-born actor who portrayed Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi, Jedi Knight in the first three (original trilogy) Star Wars films. As guide and teacher to Luke Skywalker, Ben Kenobi introduces Luke and the audience to the Jedi. Mentoring the hero, Luke, with questions and few answers, he appears in all three films: Star Wars movies: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

Remembered by his peers and friends as “the man of many parts,” Sir Alex Guinness (de Cuffe) was born in London, England, UK on April 2, 1914. With his stage debut at the Albery Theatre in 1936, in the John Gielgud Company, Guinness left copy-writing for a career in acting, quickly proving himself a fine character actor and becoming numbered among the professional actors of the Old Vic.

As war settled over Europe, Guinness served in the Royal Navy as seaman and then received his commission assuming command of a landing craft that saw action in Sicily and Elba and later his ship brought supplies to the partisans in Yugoslav.

Returning to the Old Vic, he honed his talents playing various characters with some of the time's greatest stage actors, and ultimately producing "Richard II." Guesting in several major theater openings, Guinness made his New York stage début in 1942 in "Flare Path."

As Herbert Pocket, Pip's friend in Great Expectations, Guinness's career in films began. Through the next several years, he made some classic films, including: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which Guinness played the eight heirs to a dukedom; The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), with Guinness as the mousy clerk turned bank robber; The Man in the White Suit (1951), with Guinness as the chemist who invents a fabric that will never wear out. In 1957, Guinness took the role of Colonel Nicholson, the unyielding British POW leader in Bridge on the River Kwai for which Guinness won an Academy Award for Best Actor. Referred to by Lean as "my good luck charm," Guinness was cast in several David Lean films over the next few years.

In 1977, George Lucas approached Guinness about playing the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi who agreed with certain conditions. Guinness is quoted as saying, "What I didn't tell him was that I just couldn't go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I'd had enough of the mumbo jumbo," he told Talk interviewer Fintan O'Toole. As a result, the part of Obi-Wan was drastically cut, but not enough to stop the fans from finding the gentle Jedi Master a major focal point of the original saga. Guinness was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977.

In the two of three bestselling autobiographies, Guinness relates some Star Wars thoughts and funny antidotes.

Guinness won the Best Actor Oscar for Bridge on the River Kwai. He was nominated in 1958 for his screenplay adaptation of Joyce Cary's The Horses Mouth and in 1977 for Best Supporting Actor in Star Wars. In 1980, Sir Alec Guinness received an Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement. As Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1955 and knighted in 1959, Guinness became a Companion of Honor in 1994 at 80 years of age. Sir Guinness has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1559 Vine.

Sir Alec Guinness died on August 5, 2000, at Midhurst in West Sussex, of prostate cancer. He is interred in Petersfield, Hampshire, England.

External Links

• Information at IMDB
• Information at Wikipedia
• Sir Alec Guinness: A Man of Many Parts
• Article at Space.com
• Upcoming TV Schedule by IMDB.com

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