Word: alec
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...Alec Guinness...
...ALEC GUINNESS MADE a career of bringing dignity to mediocrity. Although a contemporary and a rightful companion of the great British actors of this century, no one ever seems to mention Sir Alec in their company. Certainly he doesn't lack exposure-Guinness made more films than any of them with the exception of Lord Lawrence Olivier, who these days will take any part that doesn't require him to move much--but his unique talents by their very nature doom him to relative obscurity...
Guinness begins his memoirs with a reminder to himself and his readers that in taking on the role of Alec Guinness it would not be in character to talk about himself: "He is not at all proud of himself or his achievements and is equally attracted and repelled by the limelight, and is never quite sure how to present himself, or who he is or what he would really like to be." A compromise is reached between the writer and the subject. Guinness will only discuss Guinness when he is relevant to the general narrative...
...Alec was a participant in the great age of British theater, when it was populated by giants who held the stage without apparent effort. While Brando was sweating or mumbling to himself for two hours before each performance, Olivier could slap on a putty nose and blow the house away. The people Guinness describes are not quite larger than life but simply more grand than you and I are used to. John Gielgud really is as acerbic and sophisticated as he is on screen, and Ernie Kovacs was indeed the funniest person Guinness ever met. During the making...
...have any interest for me anymore." He likes movies, but he loves the stage and is even now on the lookout for a good play. At the moment Alan Bennett (The Old Country) is his favorite English playwright; David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross), his favorite American. Between roles, Sir Alec and his wife Merula play country folk in a home 55 miles southwest of London, near Winchester. "Farmland round and about," he says. "It's a very simple house, and it's always untidy, always dusty and ill cared for, it seems to me. But we love...