Sir Alec Guinness CH CBE (April 2, 1914 – August 5, 2000) was an English actor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original trilogy.
Besides his portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Guinness won acclaim for many roles on live theater, television, and film, including his Academy Award-winning role as Lt. Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai. He was honored with a knighthood in 1959, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1980.
In 1973, he had a role as Adolf Hitler in Hitler: The Last Ten Days, which also starred Star Wars actors Julian Glover and Kenneth Colley, and he had a prominent role in Lawrence of Arabia as Prince Feisal. Other memorable films in which he performed include Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Ladykillers, and Doctor Zhivago.
Alec Guinness was born on April 2, 1914. During the casting process for the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, director George Lucas was looking for an actor who brought a certain authority to the role and could be powerful and gentle. Lucas found these qualities in Guinness, who joined the cast because of the film's sense of moral good and the studio's doubling of his initial salary offer. Lucas wanted Kenobi to die, however, Guinness objected to his character's death. Lucas then explained that Kenobi would have little to do after the Millennium Falcon escaped the Death Star, which conviced Guinness to allow the death. Guinness was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. He reprised his role as a force ghost in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Guinness' contract gave him 2.25% of the director's cut. He viewed A New Hope as "fairy-tale rubbish," and he disliked being associated with the role of Kenobi. Despite this, Brian Blessed, an actor who met Guinness many times, stated that Guinness was "madly in love" with the Star Wars films.
On August 5, 2000, Guinness died from liver cancer at King Edward VII Hospital in England. When Ewan McGregor played Kenobi in the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, he came up with the idea for he and the crew to look at pictures of Guinness in A New Hope to bridge the gap between the two actors. Also, his hair and beard were grayed a little bit to get closer to Guinness's portrayal.
Edited audio of Guinness saying the word "afraid" was used for Kenobi to say "Rey" in Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.
When Joby Harold was writing the Obi-Wan Kenobi television series, he wanted to understand the story of what happened to Kenobi between McGregor and Guinness' portrayal of him. When McGregor was playing Kenobi, he made it seem like the character would grow up to be Guinness by trying to sound and feel like Guinness, but he didn't want to do an impersonation. To relearn his Kenobi voice, McGregor listened to a sound file that has all of Guinness' lines from A New Hope. McGregor imagined how Guinness would say the lines before filming a scene.