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Alec Guinness
The actor in Kind Hearts and Coronets
 

Sir Alec Guiness de Cuffe was born in April of 1914. He was raised by only his mother in Maida Vale, London as his father has never been noted. 

He got an early start in the theatre business working at the old King's Theatre where he was a student working on the play Libel. Nearly 2 years later, he appeared in Hamlet at the New Theatre and working with the Old Vic nonprofit theatre. 

After signing at the Old Vic, he would go on to play a numerous amount of roles in different Shakespeare plays from Hamlet, Richard II, Twelfth Night, Hernry V, and The Merchant of Venice.
 

In the mist of his theatrical involvement, he would serve in the World War II as a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. Guinness would quickly move towards as a Sub-lieutenant and then Temporary Lieutenant. During the war, he was grated military leave to appear in Flare Path, a stage play about the RAF Bomber Command playing the role of Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham.

In the late 1930s into the 1940s, he would adapt Charles Dicken's novel Great Expectations for the stage. Following great success, David Lean, a young British Film Editor, would take on to adapt the play into a film adaptations where Guinness would reprise his role.
 

Movie and TV Career

Guinness would end up being in many well known movies and TV shows today. Some of the most notable listed below.

- Kind Heart and Coronets (1949)
- The Mudlark (1950)
- Bakers Dozen (1955)
- Scrooge (1970)
- Star Wars (1977, 1980, 1983)
- Raise the Titanic (1980)
- Little Dorrit (1987)



 

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Above: The Oscars Alec Guinness Winning Best Actor in 1958



 

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