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A Miscellany of Men |
Alec Guinness
1914-2000
by Dale Ahlquist
Sir Alec Guinness was the quintessential professional actor. He trained hard to develop his skill, he played a stunning variety of characters, he was adept at both light comedy and Shakespearean tragedy, and he had a distinct "presence" that he brought to the stage and screen. He was a leading man in the 1950s, played eight different roles in Kind Hearts and Coronets, won an Oscar for The Bridge Over the River Kwai and a Tony for his portrayal of Dylan Thomas. But ironically he is best remembered for a relatively small part he took in 1977: Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. He was baffled by the wild popularity of both the film and his character. He described the dialogue that George Lucas wrote for him as "the most dreadful rubbish."
He also played Father Brown. It was our own Frances Farrell who pointed out that since Alec Guinness played Father Brown in the 1950s movie The Detective and played Pope Innocent III in the 1970s movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon, we could thus conclude that Father Brown became Pope.
Most people who have seen the Father Brown movie have been as pleased with Guinness' portrayal of G.K. Chesterton's famous priest as they have been frustrated with the awful screenplay that managed to combine two different Father Brown stories while emptying them entirely of their contents, including Chesterton's own dialogue. Yet, it turns out that this rather forgettable film was the most important role that Guinness ever played. As he explained in his autobiography, Blessings in Disguise, when filming on location in Burgundy, he was returning to his hotel one evening, still in costume as Father Brown:
I hadn't gone far when I heard scampering footsteps and a piping voice calling, 'Mon piere!' My hand was seized by a boy of seven or eight, who clutched it tightly, swung it and kept up a non-stop prattle. He was full of excitement, hops, skips and jumps, but never let go of me. I didn't dare speak in case my excruciating French should scare him. Although I was a total stranger he obviously took me for a priest and so to be trusted. Suddenly with a 'Bonsoir, mon piere', and a hurried sideways sort of bow, he disappeared through a hole in a hedge. He had had a happy, reassuring walk home, and I was left with an odd calm sense of elation. Continuing my walk I reflected that a Church which could inspire such a confidence in a child, making its priests, even when unknown, so easily approachable could not be as scheming and creepy as so often made out. I began to shake off my long-taught, long-absorbed prejudices.
His conversion to the Catholic faith followed shortly thereafter. Though Guinness was of course known as an actor, Joseph Pearce rightly includes him in his book Literary Converts as one of the many 20th century artists whose journey to Rome was heavily influenced by Chesterton. And Blessings in Disguise leaves no doubt about Guinness' literary talents: "An actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child, and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerise a group of innocents."
According to the newly published authorized biography of the actor, Guinness' Catholicism was of immense importance to him. His favorite passage from Chesterton, claims biographer Piers Paul Read, was, "The Church is the one thing that prevents a man from the degrading servitude of being a child of his own time." Indeed, the actor quotes this passage in his memoirs when reflecting on his conversion. He notes how comforting it was to have given himself "to something that spans the centuries."
The centrality of his faith also led to another role that was obviously important to him. In 1958, he pretended to be an American plastic surgeon, so that he could have an audience with Pope Pius XII! He got in with a group of doctors who had a private Mass with the Pope. He studiously said nothing as he shook hands with the Pontiff and received a blessing.
There are two other Chesterton connections with Sir Alec: one a beginning, the other an ending. When he was sixteen years old, he managed to arrange a meeting with a famous British stage actress by the name of Sybil Thorndike. She invited him after receiving a letter in which he explained that he wanted to become an actor and asked for her assistance and advice. She probably thought he was related to the famous brewing family who shared his last name. But Alec was given the name by his mother, who never told him who his father was. When preparing to meet the famous actress, he prepared some poems to recite. Among them were his favorites by Chesterton. We don't know, however, which poems they were.
But we do know of one Chesterton poem he recited. At the end of the film The Horse's Mouth as the troublesome but sincere painter, Gulley Jimson, Guinness recites the end of Chesterton's "The Rolling English Road":
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things
to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.