Sir Alec Guinness passed away Saturday, August 5, 2000. He was 86 years old.
The August 7 Guardian reported that he had been in ill health for a number of years. "His sixty-year career included such highlights as Kind Hearts and Coronets - in which he famously played eight different roles - and The Bridge On the River Kwai, for which he won an Oscar in 1959. He was knighted the same year.
"To anyone under 30, however, he was probably most famous for playing the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977's Star Wars. It was, a role he professed to despise, saying he threw away all Star Wars fan-mail unopened."
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