Rare Sir Alec Guinness Interview September 1986

first my first guest tonight is one of the greatest actors living today and this is probably the first time he's ever followed a giant fan some of his motion pictures include The Bridge on the River Kwai Lawrence of Arabia Kind Hearts and Coronets and of course Star Wars he is also the author of this book right here it's called blessings in disguise please welcome Sir Alec Guinness I don't appear you oh yeah our I thought you I'm just fine thank you very much for being here I'm guessing you don't get a chance to see this television program haven't seen it except what I've just seen that and and what was your impression there I absolutely mad about it oh you thought about egg egg shot you know let's go in the museum ah ah ah you're Sir Alec Guinness sure and I can call you Alec Alec tell me about the ceremony at which your United this is what happened right you were knighted oh you know you shuffle along with a lot of other people mm-hmm and the Queen takes a sword which is little alarming mm-hmm and gives you a tap on each shoulder you know kneel on one knee encumber how many people read it how many people are knighted at once oh uh half a dozen 10 maybe yeah do you remember the other folks you were knighted but never had of them since no kidding you don't dig there's no like an annual picnic or anything uh and and was this uh like a really high point in your career to become knighted for your efforts well I know it's a it's a very nice honor to receive there's no financial business no money involved no you get a guessing a plaque or uh no not a thing no kidding yeah but then but from that tab that's happened from that and from that point on your sir however I yes and my wife becomes a lady at last that's great uh but in no other privileges nothing you know yeah okay let's talk a little bit about the book tell me about some of the some of the folks that you've worked with it's a pretty impressive list anyway you want to start here Ernie Kovacs for example oh I was devoted to any Kovacs I mean I only met him on I met him afterwards but on the film of our man in Havana I met in Havana and when I first met him he got his head caught in the clamp and the Tavor boys clap well you know every gag possible was going on my loyal crumb would never get through this year however we became very good friends and we had suites in the hotel where adjoining and what one afternoon I went back as mrs. alright saying oh well yeah after one afternoon I went I went back to my Roman and his door was open and he was sitting just inside the door at a table at a typewriter he was always really busy but lying around his room unmistakeably was six very beautiful totally naked girls reading magazines yeah and I thought hey you know and I said Ernie should I close your door for you he said no no no no is if you closed the door he said people would pass here and they say Ernie Kovacs is and there was six broads the doors open you know they know it's all perfectly all right yes and this is this where you meant to Ernest Hemingway or was that later no I didn't meet understand having way on that film and became very good friends with him briefly I last you know two or three years later he he died and surprisingly enough because he's a very different personality to me or he was I think we got on very well and he gave dinner to my wife and myself and no card where was he living at just in Cuba and he took a great shine that evening against no coward and at the end of July he was be he was perfectly polite but a bit grumbly and gruff hundred had he been drinking pretty strong no no no and he said to me come along with me ladies like huh stand anymore at that he named coward wing finger-wagging stupid dog I'll miss it because I could possibly you know I could kind of punch him and he looked at some stuffed animal heads on his wall here are great beasts from Africa and so on and he said you all but then you always kill the thing you love I don't think I love just rough him up a little bit that's right now this is uh you know looking back on it even then this is a pretty heavyweight dinner party yourself the host is Ernest Hemingway yeah and another one of the guests is Graham Greene yeah I'm Graham Greene and uh uh else was then God I have to look at the book I'm good man no coward and what did you guys what were you eating do you remember what was not on no recollection what it was it so that's a pretty heavyweight table I'm pretty impressive let's do a commercial here and then we'll continue and maybe you can throw something at the fan if you like will we live back out here for that's Hemingway were there cats everywhere house cats running around all over the place I don't remember I remember that tell me about uh we were talking the other day about there Ralph Richardson and and somebody I think there's bill Wendell had mentioned the story about how there were again at a party he came in and did something to you you know what I'm talking about is that I wasn't a party it was in Madrid and I'd been alone for a week filming he'd been away with his wife came back and I thought oh I lost not to dinner and they said no con come to dinner but if you had to come around to our hotel would give you an omelet and I'm okay so I went round rather early and there was a waiter arrived at the door at the same time as I did big vestibule to their suite and his wife opened the door and said come in and Ralph suddenly appeared and came straight after me and said who can you hit except your friends and before I knew where I was he punched me on the Jordan and knocked me out flat on the ground and then he retired into another Roman when firmly asleep he was very tired and that was it that was that was it I have my omelette in silence uh-huh I'm suspiciously uh-huh that's this must have been a very strange man uh he was a very excited ear man I was devoted to him he died what couple of years ago but he was an eccentric I was in the show with him months in in London and you can tell how long ago it was because I was playing the juvenile Hannah and in the last act I'm a quick change into evening clothes white tie tales and evening shoes and he came to me after performance and said your shoes squeak and well I knew they did you know something you know how they can issues is it do do something about it I said what I've tried I put vaseline on I've down but nothing seems to happen anyway the next evening when I came to do my quick change into my evening they couldn't find my evening shoes searched everywhere then my dress have found them in a bucket of water in a corner of the room and so I've all right I put them on and I squelched it's truthful I he didn't like that look the result of that was that I got a very very heavy coal enormous pneumonia and I was off for about three or four days yeah but they didn't squeak though didn't know he'd done it yeah well I when I got back I went to Rome and I said Ralph I'm sorry I was off but I did have this gas to coal I said have you been off all hello I didn't notice you know this is gonna sound this may sound strange to you but I bet you've heard it before you have the most beautiful eyeballs of anybody I've ever seen in my life well they're ABS they're absolutely what are you talking about your eyes you have they're the the color is lovely and they're just very nicely the miner just run-of-the-mill eyeballs but here I'm serious if you ever get a chance to look this man and real close in the face and in fact after the show if you have some time all right let's talk a little bit about star wars now when they first asked you to be in that film did you were you reluctant to participate in the film did you know anything about me I knew about American Graffiti sure admire very much George Lucas um I'm quiet about George louvers and they I was in Hollywood and at the end of making up a film what was the film Murder by Death it was called in her um not as big as Star Wars wasn't no no and there was a script on my dressing table and I saw George Lucas's name and that I knew had you know was potential there and then I opened it and I thought oh my god it's you know it's science fiction and it's not gonna be for me but I'll read a little bit and I started reading I didn't think the dialogue was very good but it held me from page two and the next day I'm met with Lucas we had lunch together I liked him enormously you know shortly after that he said would I come and play that part yeah which was one of the luckiest things come my way it must be not being an actor I don't know if this is true but it must be very satisfying do you know that a line from that movie that your character spoke is now part of movie legend and will forever sustain do it my beautiful eyeballs glaze over may the force be with you Oh a little bit weary in it all right I'm sorry by the way that wasn't the line I was talking about but thanks anyway um where were you living now I live in I live in southern England and in the country and very comfortable no very simple Britain simple way ah yes sure what do you have hobbies and so forth no I read a lot read a lot I look after my dog looking a dog's deer well they're both mongrels one thinks she's a a bearded collie and the other thinks that he's a Labrador they're not quite yeah they look kind of like what are the names their names it's awfully embarrassing asking about the names yes yeah I know we can run into that I'll tell you the names of mine all right all right and there I guess they're embarrassing one is Bob and the other one is stand oh nice accent is that yeah well my bitter call is called Bluebell oh yeah Bluebell mm-hmm I'm the Labrador type it is called Japheth Japheth mmm well my wife and I squabble about this I say Japheth and she says J pet so he gets cold those two different layers but he's not there to confuse but they're great dogs and the book I'm guessing the book is doing quite well for you in England very well I hope it would be all right yeah Alec Guinness blessings in disguise jeez it was a pleasure meeting and thanks for putting up with this nonsense thanks so

Channel: Televisionarchives

Views: 535,816

Rating: 4.9224524 out of 5

Keywords: Alec Guinness (Film Actor), Sir, Footage, Exclusive, Film (Media Genre), Interview, Interview (Magazine), Star Wars (Film Series)

Id: qSsHA8ctxtE

Length: 12min 38sec (758 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 05 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

You can practically hear him gritting his teeth

[u/[deleted]]

"I didn't think the dialog was very good".

Sir Alec Guiness

[u/Lindt_Licker]

That was awkward for him.

[u/Pavrik_Yzerstrom]

It’s a great interview all around. The Star Wars part you could tell he was tired of doing, but he didn’t seem unhappy about it.

Looked similar to Harrison Ford when asked about it.

[u/TadThuggish]

"I'm not just a one-line wonder: Did you know a section of rainforest the size of Kansas is burned every single--"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_iiXWzqHRw

[u/universe-atom]

Dew it!

[u/MikeKeenanCanGetBent]

Time stamp?