British actor Sir Alec Guinness (1914 – 2000) was famous for the wide range and excellence of his roles. His decades-long career included an Oscar-winning performance in 1957’s Bridge on the River Kwai, as well as stellar performances in films such as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Doctor Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia. Nowadays, his best known role is Obi Wan Kenobi of the original Star Wars trilogy. Ironically, he thought Star Wars was “tripe”, but it made him staggeringly wealthy. His contract for the first film entitled him to 2.25% gross royalties. Adjusted for inflation, it came to almost $100 million in 2025 dollars. Not only was Guinness a stage and screen star, he was also, as seen below, a World War II veteran of the British Royal Navy.
A Thespian in the Royal Navy
Alec Guinness de Cuffe was born in London in 1914. He began his thespian career in the theater at age twenty while still a drama student. Unremarkable in appearance, he was tall and had a notable stage presence. By age twenty two, he had attracted attention as a Shakespearean actor. The rising star was befriended and mentored by stage legends of his day. After WWII broke out, Guinness enlisted in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1941, at age twenty seven.
The following year, Guinness was commissioned as a naval officer. In 1943, he was ordered to Boston to take charge of his first command, a freshly built Landing Craft Infantry (LCI). He sailed his ship and new crew across the Atlantic to North Africa, where they began to train for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. WWII records show that Guinness landed the first Allied ground force that hit Sicily’s beaches. As seen below, he was not first by design, but due to a mistake.
Guinness Kicked Off the Invasion of Sicily by Being the First to Disembark Allied Troops on the Island’s Beaches
On July 9th, 1943, Guinness’ maneuvered his vessel to the side of a troop ship, from which he took 200 men of the 5th Battalion of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) aboard his landing craft, HMS LCI-124. His orders were to disembark them at Cape Passero. However, because of a communications breakdown, he was not informed that the schedule had been changed, and the landing time pushed back. So Guinness sailed his craft to the beach alone, an hour ahead of schedule.
The sea was turbulent, and pushed the vessel’s stern at an angle the prevented the soldiers on board from using the ramp. So the men of the Black Watch were forced to use ropes to lower themselves to the surf, then wade through water to the Sicilian shore. Fortunately, given that they were the only Allied troops on the beach, they did not encounter any enemy opposition. Later in the war, Guinness landed troops on the island of Elba, and during the Normandy invasion.
Surviving a Shipwreck
Guinness also ferried secret agents and supplies across the Adriatic Sea the partisans in Yugoslavia. Guinness lost his ship on one of those missions. While en route from Barletta, Italy, to the Yugoslav island of Vis, he found himself in the middle of a massive storm that seemed to have come out of nowhere. The ship was tossed around by thirty-foot waves, and powerful hurricane force gales made control impossible. Guinness managed to fight LCI-124 through the storm to Termoli, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, but there, a massive wave lifted the ship and dashed it upon rocks in the harbor.
The crew was unhurt, but their vessel was damaged beyond repair. LCI-124 was eventually turned into a concrete jetty at Termoli. During the war, Guinness was allowed a leave of absence to appear onstage in the play Flare Path, about the RAF’s Bomber Command. His wartime experiences led him to contemplate becoming a priest. Fortunately for the stage and film and millions of viewers worldwide, he decided to continue his acting career, which he resumed after his demobilization.
_________________
Some Sources & Further Reading
Encyclopedia Britannica – Alec Guinness, British Actor
History Halls – After the Fame, George Murphy: From Tinseltown to the US Senate
