British actor famous for the variety and excellence of his stage and screen characterizations. Throughout his school days Guinness amused his classmates by acting out stories he had invented at the age of seven while ill. He was first a copywriter for an advertising agency, then, after studying acting, made his stage debut in 1934 as an extra at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, London. Three years later he joined the acting company of John Gielgud and appeared in such classics as Richard II (1937), The School for Scandal (1937), The Three Sisters (1937), and The Merchant of Venice (1938).

In 1938 Guinness starred in a popular modern-dress version of Hamlet at the Old Vic Theatre, London. He produced Twelfth Night for the Old Vic company in 1948. While on leave from the Royal Navy during World War II, he made his New York stage debut in Flare Path (1942-43) and later appeared there in The Cocktail Party (1964) and Dylan (1964). Guinness' initial screen role was as Pip's friend Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), which was adapted to the screen from the novel by Charles Dickens.

Next came Oliver Twist (1948) and then a series of Ealing studio comedies that included the internationally popular Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which Guinness played the eight heirs to a dukedom; The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), with Guinness as the mousy clerk turned bank robber; The Man in the White Suit (1951), with Guinness as the chemist who invents a fabric that will never wear out; and The Captain's Paradise (1953), in which he played a lovable bigamist. Other famous films are The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for best actor; Lawrence of Arabia (1962), in which he played Prince Feisal; Star Wars (1977), in which he played Ben Kenobi; and Little Dorrit (1987), in which he played William Dorrit.

In 1980 he won a special Academy Award for memorable film performances. Guinness also wrote dramatizations (The Brothers Karamazov and Great Expectations) and a film script of The Horse's Mouth and coauthored the play Yahoo (1976), in which he played the role of Jonathan Swift. Guinness was knighted in 1960. An autobiography, Blessings in Disguise, appeared in 1986.