English actor Alec Guinness was BOTD in 1914. Born and raised in London, he studied drama while working as an advertising copywriter, and pursued a stage career. After working with John Gielgud, he joined the Old Vic Theatre company, becoming a prominent Shakespearean actor alongside Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War Two, he transitioned successfully to film roles, appearing in David Lean’s Great Expectations and Oliver Twist and the Ealing studio comedies Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers. He became a regular player in Lean’s films, appearing in the mega-hits The Bridge on the River Kwai, the T. E. Lawrence biopic Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and his 1984 adaptation of E. M. Forster‘s novel A Passage to India. His role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977 sci-fi film Star Wars introduced him to a new generation of moviegoers. While privately griping about the banality of the scripts, he appeared in the sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, ensuring himself permanent cult status. Another late-career highlight was his starring role as George Smiley in the 1978 TV adaptation of John Le Carré’s spy novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Guinness married the actress Merle Salmon in 1938, with whom he had a son. In 1946, he was arrested and fined for having sex in a public toilet, escaping public exposure by giving his name as Herbert Pocket (his character from Great Expectations). He kept his bisexuality a secret from all but his family and close friends, avoiding any identification with the gay rights movement. He died in 2000 aged 86.