Barry Fitzgerald

and for television at 7001 Hollywood Blvd. Merula planned to write a book about her relationship with Guinness but died before the book was written. Fitzgerald has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for movies at 6220 Hollywood Blvd. The biography also states, on the basis of letters written by his wife, Merula, that Guinness was an emotionally abusive husband who regularly publicly humiliated both his wife and son. He won the Supporting Actor Oscar. Either date is several years after his 1938 marriage -- http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biog2/guin1.html and http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/~stafflag/alecguinness.html (The Knitting Circle of South Bank University). He performed a feat never done in the history of the Academy Awards when he was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same performance, in 1944's Going My Way. NOTE: Other accounts give the date of the Liverpool arrest as 1946.

He had a successful Hollywood career in such films as The Long Voyage Home, How Green Was My Valley, And Then There Were None and The Quiet Man. When arrested the actor gave as his name Herbert Pocket, the character he had just played in David Lean's film version of Great Expectations and was prosecuted and fined under that name, but avoided public scandal because the police never realised the true identity of "Pocket" until decades later. Fitzgerald went to Hollywood to star in another O'Casey work, The Plough And The Stars, directed by John Ford. It also revealed that the actor was arrested in Liverpool in 1948 for cottaging (soliciting for sex in a public toilet). Born William Joseph Shields in Dublin, he joined the Abbey Theatre, and starred in such plays as Sean O'Casey's Juno And The Paycock, a role he recreated for Alfred Hitchcock in his screen debut in 1930. A 2003 biography of Guinness, by the author Piers Paul Read, revealed that the actor was bisexual, who before his marriage had had several homosexual relationships. Barry Fitzgerald (March 10, 1888 - January 14, 1961) was an Irish actor. Guinness wrote three volumes of bestselling autobiography, beginning with Blessings in Disguise in 1985, followed by My Name Escapes Me in 1996 and A Positively Final Appearance in 1999.

He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 Vine Street. He was appointed CBE in 1955, was knighted in 1959, and became a Companion of Honour in 1994. Sir Alec Guinness died of liver cancer on August 5, 2000, at Midhurst in West Sussex, and was interred near Petersfield, Hampshire, England. One of his last appearances was in the acclaimed BBC drama Eskimo Day.

From the 1970s, Guinness made regular television appearances, including the part of George Smiley in the serialisations of two novels by John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. He would throw out any fan mail regarding Star Wars without reading it. His part as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars brought him worldwide recognition by a new generation (and reputedly lots of money), though he was never happy with being identified with the part. He also received an Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievements in 1980.

He was nominated again in 1958 for his screenplay adapted from Joyce Cary's novel The Horse's Mouth. His film appearances ranged from Lawrence of Arabia to The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Academy Award as best actor in 1957. Guinness was also a talented dramatic and character actor. In 1954 during the shooting of the film Father Brown, he converted to Roman Catholicism and became devout, attending church regularly for the rest of his life.

In 1952, director Ronald Neame cast Guinness in his first romantic lead role, opposite Petula Clark in The Card. Other films from this period included The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers, and The Man in the White Suit. He was initially mainly associated with the Ealing comedies, and particularly for playing 12 different characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets. He returned to the Old Vic in 1946.

During the War he appeared in Terence Rattigan's West End Play for Bomber Command, Flare Path. Alec Guinness served in the Royal Navy throughout World War II, serving first as a seaman in 1941 and being commissioned the following year and commanded a landing craft taking part in the invasion of Sicily and Elba and later ferrying supplies to the Yugoslav partisans. He married the artist, playwright, and actress Merula Salaman in 1938, and they had a son, Matthew, in 1940. Born in London, he first worked in advertising before making his debut at the Old Vic in 1936.

Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE (April 2, 1914 - August 5, 2000) was a British actor who became one of the most versatile and best loved performers of his generation. Great Expectations (1946). Oliver Twist (1948). Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

A Run for Your Money (1949). Last Holiday (1950). The Mudlark (1950). The Lavender Hill Mob (1951).

The Man in the White Suit (1951). The Card (1952). The Captain's Paradise (1953). The Square Mile (1953) (voice).

The Malta Story (1953). Father Brown (1954). The Stratford Adventure (1954). To Paris with Love (1955).

The Prisoner (1955). The Ladykillers (1955). Rowlandson's England (1955). The Swan (1956).

The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957). Barnacle Bill (1957). The Horse's Mouth (1958). The Scapegoat (1959).

Our Man in Havana (1959). Tunes of Glory (1960). A Majority of One (1961). Defiant (1962).

H.M.S. Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). Doctor Zhivago (1965).

But Not Serious (1965). Situation Hopeless.. Hotel Paradiso (1966). The Quiller Memorandum (1966).