Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness CH CBEwas an English actor. After an early career on the stage, he was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He is also known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations, Fagin in Oliver Twist, Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai, Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia, General Yevgraf Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago,...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth2 April 1914
CityLondon, England
Luke : How did my father die? Obi-Wan : A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.
Who is more foolish? The fool or the fool that follows it?
Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.
That's no moon. It's a space station
Much of the day I have busied myself making notes on the small parts in Shakespeare, often nameless, which are rewarding to the actor if only he'll not dismiss them as beneath his dignity. If I can work it up into a talk I might call it, 'Only a cough and a spit ' -the phrase so often used by actors to explain away a lack of opportunity.
A superb tenor voice, like a silver trumpet muffled in silk.
An Actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents...
Best performance of the year: Aston Villa v. Milan, September 1994
Styling is designing for obsolescence.
My contribution to film has always been negligible.
I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars to me.
Essentially, I'm a small-part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life.
I never knew how good it is to be unknown until now. The last time I was unknown I was too busy trying to become known to realize the advantages of obscurity.
A person who is keen to shake your hand usually has something up his sleeve.