World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAlec Guinness de Cuffe was born to mother Agnes Cuff and an unknown father in Britain in 1914. He had his first role as an actor on his 20th birthday, and would slowly gain fame in this chosen career in the next few years. In 1941, he entered military service with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. In 1942, he was given an officer rank. As the commanding officer of a landing craft, he saw action in the invasion of Sicily, the invasion of Elbe, the invasion of Normandy, and during the Allied attempt to supply arms to anti-German Yugoslavian partisan groups. During the war, he was granted leave to appear in the Broadway production Flare Path, which was a play about the RAF Bomber Command. After the war, he continued his successful Shakespearean career as well as evolving into a film actor. His best film work was often said to be Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). He was was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1955, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1959. In 1957, his brief military service and his career in drama crossed paths in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai; he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for that role. In 1973, another WW2-related film took him a completely different direction as he played Adolf Hitler in Hitler: The Last Ten Days. For the later generation, he would be mostly known for his portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars films of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Cambridge University. In 1994, he was made a Companion of Honour for his accomplishments in the arts. He passed away from cancer in 2000. Guinness was buried in Petersfield, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

Alec Guinness Timeline

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