Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
A continuation of the saga created by George Lucas, set thirty years after Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi.
Mute Witness
Billy Hughes, a mute makeup artist working on a slasher film being shot in Moscow, is locked in the studio after hours. While there she witnesses a brutal murder, and must first escape capture at that time, then keep from being killed before convincing authorities of what she's seen. Plot twists galore follow as Billy tries to stay alive.
Kafka
Kafka works during the day at an insurance company, where events lead him to discover a mysterious underground society with strange suppressive goals.
Little Dorrit
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. A film in originally released in two parts.
A Handful of Dust
English aristocrat Tony Last welcomes tragedy into his life when he invites John Beaver to visit his vast estate. There Beaver makes the acquaintance of Tony's wife, Brenda. Together, they continue their relationship in a series of bedroom assignations in London.
A Passage to India
Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
After rescuing Han Solo from the palace of Jabba the Hutt, the Rebels attempt to destroy the Second Death Star, while Luke Skywalker tries to bring his father back to the Light Side of the Force.
Smiley's People
Called out of retirement to settle the affairs of a friend, Smiley finds his old organization, the Circus, so overwhelmed by political considerations that it doesn't want to know what happened.
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
While Luke takes advanced Jedi training from Yoda, his friends are relentlessly pursued by Darth Vader as part of his plan to capture Luke.
Raise the Titanic
To obtain a supply of a rare mineral, a ship raising operation is conducted for the only known source, the Titanic.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.
The Star Wars Holiday Special
Chewbacca and Han Solo try to get to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day, but are impeded by an Imperial blockade. Chewie's family passes the time with various forms of entertainment.
Star Wars
When Princess Leia is taken prisoner by Darth Vader, she sends her two droids on a mission to find an old Jedi Knight. Their paths cross that of Luke Skywalker who, along with Obi Wan Kenobi, Han Solo and Chewbacca, heads off to Alderaan to deliver the droids to the Rebellion.
Murder by Death
Five famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks are invited to a bizarre mansion to solve an even stranger mystery.
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
A dramatization based on eyewitness accounts of Hitler's final days in an underground bunker, his military henchmen, and his stormy relationship with Eva Braun.
Fratello sole, sorella luna
In his delirium from his return from war, Francesco Bernardone goes back in his memories to the days when he lived for parties and carnal pleasures. He slowly recovers, but after the illness he is no longer the Francesco that everybody knew.
Scrooge
A musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic ghost tale starring Albert Finney.
Cromwell
Disgusted with the policies of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell plans to take his family to the New World. But on the eve of their departure, Cromwell is drawn into the tangled web of religion and politics that will result in the English Civil War.
The Comedians
American and British tourists get caught up in political unrest in Haiti.
The Quiller Memorandum
Two British agents are murdered by a mysterious Neonazi organization in West Berlin. The British Secret Service sends agent Quiller to investigate. Soon Quiller is confronted with Neonazi chief "Oktober" and involved in a dangerous game where each side tries to find out the enemy's headquarters at any price.
Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago is the filmed adapation of the Russian novel by Boris Pasternak from director David Lean that was an international success and today deemed a classic. Omar Sharif and Julie Kristie play two protagonists who in fact love each other yet because of their current situation cannot find a way be together.
The Fall of the Roman Empire
Drawn from the same events that later inspired Gladiator, the film charts the power-hungry greed and father-son betrayal that led to Rome's collapse at the bloody hands of the Barbarians.
Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia is the classic film from David Lean starring Peter O’Toole and based on the autobiography from Thomas Edward Lawrence who during the first World War was on assignment by the British Empire in Arabia. The film would become a cult classic and is known today as a masterpiece.
H.M.S. Defiant
Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.
A Majority of One
A gentle love story about a Japanese businessman and widower, and a Brooklyn widow. But before a happy ending can ensue, they must learn again the lessons of tolerance, kindness and forgiveness.
Tunes of Glory
After World War II, a Highland Regiment's acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.
Our Man in Havana
Is a light hearted and satirical tale of political espionage and intrigue in pre-Castro Cuba.
The Horse's Mouth
A somewhat vulgar but dedicated painter searches for the perfect realization of his artistic vision, much to the chagrin of others.
The Bridge on the River Kwai
A classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson , the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
Barnacle Bill
A seasick sea captain commands an amusement pier despite local opposition. Released in the U.S. as 'All at Sea'
The Swan
When a crown prince visits, the princess's mother tries to push the prince into marrying her daughter by presenting a "rival" at the ball - her children's handsome tutor.
To Paris with Love
A middle-aged widower takes his son on a trip to Paris, where they try to find wives for each other.
The Prisoner
A cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. He is a popular hero of his people, for his resistance against the Nazis during the war and his resistance when his country again fell to a totalitarian conqueror. In prison, his interrogator is determined to extract a confession of guilt, and thus destroy his power over his people.
The Ladykillers
Meet "The Unholy Five"...The Most Befuddled Set of Assorted Thugs That Ever Fouled Up a Million Dollar Bank Robbery!!
Father Brown
Works of art are disappearing, stolen by a master thief, a master of disguise. Father Brown has two goals: to catch the thief and to save his soul.
The Captain's Paradise
Mediterranean ferryboat captain Henry St James has things well organized - a loving and very English wife Maud in Gibraltar, and the loving if rather more hot-blooded Mistress, Nita in Tangiers. A perfect life. As long as neither woman decides to follow him to the other port.
Malta Story
Malta, 1942, during World War II. While the German air force is relentlessly bombing the island, a British pilot falls in love with a young Maltese girl.
The Card
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing - some honest, some not quite so. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman...
The Man in the White Suit
The unassuming, nebbishy inventor Sidney Stratton creates a miraculous fabric that will never be dirty or worn out. Clearly he can make a fortune selling clothes made of the material, but may cause a crisis in the process.
The Lavender Hill Mob
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
The Mudlark
It's 1875 and a young street urchin wants to see Queen Victoria...
Last Holiday
George Bird is a salesman of agricultural machinery who finds out that he hasn't long to live.On his doctor's advice, he goes to an exclusive seaside resort to spend his savings on one last holiday.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Louis Mazzini's mother belongs to the aristocratic family D'Ascoyne, but she ran away with an opera singer. Therefore, she and Louis were rejected by the D'Ascoynes. Once adult, Louis decides to avenges his mother and him, by becoming the next Duke of the family. Murdering every potential successor is clearly the safest way to achieve his goal.
Oliver Twist
When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin.
Great Expectations
A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.