Cast
Profiles: Sir Alec
Guinness..
An official LucasFilm site
asks:
Did he visit Leavesden? And will
he narrate Episode 3?
I grew up
with the films of Alec
Guinness and, even as a kid,
considered him one of cinema's true superstars. He had occasionally
taught at The Old Vic Drama
School which my father attended
after the Second World War and one of the subjects he taught was
theatrical make-up. My father was a great influence in my formative
years and the stories he told me about things he had learned from Sir
Alec undoubtedly played a part in fueling my enthusiasm for the
subject. So when I learned that the veteran British actor was playing
a role in this weird science fiction movie we were making I felt that
life had come full circle.
He and
Stuart
Freeborn (the make-up and
creature effects supervisor), were very old friends having worked
together on many productions starting with the 1948 version of
OLIVER
TWIST. I remember being very
nervous about approaching him as he quietly smoked a cigar between
takes in
the
Cantina. I have always been
acutely cautious of invading a star's privacy.... after all, I was a
new kid on the block and he didn't know me from Adam. I was thrilled
to discover what a charming man he was. He was most generous in
sharing his experience with a youngster in the business and over the
course of filming we talked about many things from
THE
LADY KILLERS and
KIND
HEARTS AND CORONETS (two of
my favorite films as an adolescent), to how much money he and his
wife had saved by giving up cigarettes.
His dignified and respectful attitude
towards all fellow workers was rarely matched during the course of 50
productions that I contributed to and he remains today an example of
professionalism.
It seems extra ordinary that, having
contributed to three
STAR
WARS movies that, at time of
writing, Lucasfilm does not see fit to provide a biography on him. I
hope these links will in part make up for that.
Internet
Movie Database page.
IMDb Biography page
MSN's
Cinemania page
Nick.
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