Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography

When Alec was a young boy, he figured out that his mother was something of a tart. She infuriated him by refusing to reveal the name of his real father. Out of such childhood trauma an unpleasant personality was born, but Piers Paul Read shows us that the same whirlpool of insecurity and class consciousness was the birthplace of Guinness' amazing talent. He could slip so deeply into character that oft-times those directing him worried that he would never again come out, and indeed, as Read ably shows, aspects of some of his roles seem to have grafted themselves onto his personality aftewards, so that a few of his roles marked him deeply. Sometimes this seems silly; imagine that his famous conversion to Roman Catholicism was due to him playing a priest early on and liking the way he was feeling. The reader ponders all these imponderables, and quietly gives up hope for Alec Guinness about halfway through the book. He was so mean and nasty to poor Merula, who authorized Piers Paul Read to write this biography. I bet she did, if only to get her own back. But alas she died before it could be published. Read interviews many members of her family all of whom lived in fear of Alec Guinness, who admittedly was in a difficult position. He was making huge sums for his acting, and he began to feel, not without warrant, that some of Merula's relations were just leeching onto them for the money involved. Thus he treated them like scum and they had to learn to take it, or do without the necessary. Little Matthew, his only child, had a troubling bout with polio in the 1950s, and Alec met a bet with God; if he would cure Matthew, then Alec would convert to Catholicism. What kind of God makes bargains like that? And yet that is exactly what happened. Was Alec Guinness gay? Read says he can't find a single believable account of anyone who slept with him (outside of Merula). However on the other hand every other thing in the book seems designed to persuade us that this was Guinness' big secret. Just printing that one photo of ultra-sexy Omar Sharif that Alec is said to have snapped while making LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is enough to convince me. No straight man took that photo, I could swear to it! It seems he was in love with Glenn Ford, which I did not know, and that one way or another Glenn decided to cool Alec's jets by eventually withdrawing from his company. Kind of sad. Poor Eileen Atkins deserves a medal, the way she sought to maintain a friendship with the ultra-difficult Alec. And yet he could be charming when he wanted to. People say he was the most amazing conversationalist and could make anyone feel at home, feel loved; and then he would turn on you when you did something wrong. He was the unlikeliest of stars, and the most self-effacing, disappearing into his roles like a tortoise withdrawing his head into his shell.

Alec Guinness's career spanned generations. Great-grandparents might recall his days on the British stage. Grandparents may have seen such classics as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Younger cinemaphiles still picture him as Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Like most actors, Guinness had more than his share of success with a few clinkers thrown in. Piers Paul Read reveals the enormity of his life's work, along with a massive account of Sir Alec's personal side, in ALEC GUINNESS: The Authorised Biography. Read, author of more than a dozen books, has done a huge amount of research, culling letters and journals from Guinness and his extended Guinness family, as well as a large circle of friends and acquaintances, to produce an intimate portrait of one of the greatest actors --- along with fellow Englishmen Olivier and Gielgud --- of stage, screen and television. Guinness came from humble roots. His mother was an alcoholic who never married his father and became an embarrassment to the celebrity as he grew older. It was a stigma that no doubt weighed heavily on him as a young man and beyond, and formed his persona. He was at the same time generous and tight with his money, easily offended but quick to make friends. These paradoxes form the main theme for ALEC GUINNESS. He found a soul mate in his wife, Merula, to whom he would be married for more than forty years, but once their son, Matthew, was born, their conjugal relationship was non-existent. Nevertheless, she was the perfect partner, casting a blind eye to his moodiness and confusing behavior, especially when it came to Guinness's "infatuations" with pretty young men. Read is very careful in his phraseology, employing language such as "While there is no evidence whatsoever of a sexual relationship between Alex and this, or indeed, any other man..." and "The exact nature of Alec's sexuality, however, is not at all clear." Such refusal on the part of the author to take a stand can be infuriating, since so much of this psycho-biography is devoted to Guinness's "leanings." Perhaps as a method to fight his demons, the actor sought refuge in religion, converting to Catholicism and putting great stock in his friendships with priests and nuns. A significant portion of the book flips back and forth between the sacred and the profane, so to speak, with Read reporting dozens of instances of behavior that can only be viewed as questionable, despite the fact that Guinness does not seem to have ever acted on his confusing urges. "It would seem...that Alec felt disordered passions could be controlled, if not cured, by prayer, repentance and the Grace of God. Yet he was never able to detach himself altogether from his homosexual alter-ego." As can be expected from books of this type, the author covers the major accomplishments in his subject's life, for which movie fans can be grateful. The details can get a bit much; the book no doubt could have been shorter than its 600-plus pages but