Alec Guinness (1914-2000) was an Oscar® winning English actor. Most of his professional life, he was known for his six collaborations with director David Lean. To current audiences he is best known for playing Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi in the original Star Wars movies. His IMDb page shows 63 acting credits from 1934 to 2011. This page ranks 44 Alec Guinness movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, some of his early British movies and his movies not released in North America theaters are not included in the rankings.
From Joel Hirschhorn’s Rating The Movie Stars Book…..”Guinness was once asked if he enjoyed acting and he replied, “Yes I do, It’s happy agony”. Watching him, one should only be glad he feels that the agony is worth it. Few, if any, actors have given so many dazzling performances in such a wide variety of roles.” This page comes from requests by many different people.
Alec Guinness Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
Alec Guinness Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Alec Guinness movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Alec Guinness movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Alec Guinness movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Alec Guinness movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Alec Guinness movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Alec Guinness movie won.
- Sort Alec Guinness movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
Alec Guinness or John Mahoney
Hi Bruce
Another brilliant actor.
River Kwai & Lady Killers are my favourites.
And I really like him as George Smiley in the TV mini-series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy & Smiley’s People.
As always, great work Bruce.
Hey Søren…..nice thoughts on Sir Alec. River Kwai is among my favorites as well. I have not seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy…..but I want to….especially after seeing Gary Oldman tackling that role pretty recently. Thanks for the kind words, the visit and the comment.
I have seen 18 Sir Alec Guiness movies. I always love Alec’s performances. I am thrilled to see Guiness finally get a UMR page.
There are some numbering issues again.
The HIGHEST rated film I have seen is Lawrence of Arabia.
The highest rated film I have NOT seen is Star Wars IV. Again, I have not seen a single Star Wars film.
The LOWEST rated film I have seen is Damn the Defiant! which I enjoyed.
I recently saw The Horse’s Mouth and Tunes of Glory for the first time. Both were entertaining.
Favourite Alec Guiness films:
Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
The Swan
Dr. Zhivago
Murder By Death
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Lady Killers
Great Expectations
A Passage to India
Oliver Twist
Hey Flora….thanks for checking out our Sir Alec page. As for the numbering issues…..currently the database and the website are fighting…..so many things are not getting updated….this weekend was so hectic WoC did not get much time to “fix” the fight….so it those issues might be around for a few more days.
Tally count…you and Steve are tied at 18…with me right behind with 16. You might be one of the few people on Earth, over 20, that has not seen a single Star Wars movie. Besides the first two movies….you are not really missing that much.
Glad you were able to find a way to see The Horse’s Mouth…it is a Guinness movie that I want to watch.
I have seen 8 of your favorites….two of my dad’s all-time favorites are on your list…Kwai and Lawrence. I have not seen his Oliver Twist or The Swan.
Good stuff as always.
Sir Alec finally gets his UMR page, and some British titles included too, ooh nice.
I’ve seen 18 of the 44 films on the chart. Favorites include Star Wars IV-V-VI, Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Murder by Death and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Looking at the box office chart – Doctor Zhivago was a bigger hit than two of the Star Wars series, audiences really went for that ‘romantic’ epic, Maurice Jarre’s memorable theme music probably helped a great deal. Film music has always been underrated and rarely gets mentioned in film reviews.
Lawrence of Arabia tops the UMR and critics chart, as it should, it’s one of my top 5 favorite movies. Star Wars is in my top 5 too, the original 1977 version.
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve….crazy weekend…I wanted to get so much more done here at UMR.com..but power outages derailed those plans….heck it took almost 4 hours to get this page uploaded correctly….but I feel the effort was worth it….even losing an entire night’s sleep.
I have seen 16 of these movies. Stars Wars and Empire, River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia being my favorites…so glad to see they among yours as well. Doctor Z was a huge huge hit….according to Box Office Mojo…it is one of 11 movies with an adjusted domestic box office gross of 1 billion….it sits in 8th place.
I have not seen Fall of the Roman Empire….but I have read about it many times….so my interest level in seeing that one is high.
Lawrence of Arabia is one of 10 movies to earn a perfect score on UMR…..it is even listed first….not sure why it got first….but happy to see it has a perfect score.
Good feedback as always.
HI BRUCE It’s funny how the thought association process works. When I saw that YOU had done a Guinness profile two associated thoughts immediately sprang to mind-
1/Alec’s 1958 The HORSE’s Mouth – naturally!. By the way I was delighted that you were able to include that one and produce figures for several of Alec’s to me familiar Brit films from the 1950s as grosses for such movies can be difficult to locate. Super research!
2/Guinness played The Card in the 1952 movie [aka The Promoter] and it was in respect of The Card that at the end of Arnold Bennett’s famous 1911 novel that a politician cynically enquires what The Card has ever done to make him so well liked by some of his contemporaries –“With what great cause is he identified?” asks the politician to which someone retorts “He’s identified with the great cause of cheering us all up!”
Before Sir Sean and Sir Maurice took British stardom global in a big way, for a brief period around the time of Bridge on River Kwai it could be argued that Guinness was Britain’s biggest worldwide star [Oliver having more of a theatrical than cinematic reputation]. Certainly my own faves in the old British film industry were Dirk Bogarde, Kenny More, John Mills and Alec Guinness.
[Sorry, I should have said Sir Alec Guinness CH, CBE. There you Brits go again Steve – there must be more honors showered around England ever year than there is confetti at weddings! Oh had my Richard, Jimmy, Marlon, Duke and Glenn been English –Sir Charlie Bill Stuart, I do like the sound of it and love the thought of Baroness Crawford and Dames Doris and Deanna – but not Lady Loy!
I adored Sir Alec’s quiet and authoritative acting style and rich delivery- no bawling, yelling, cursing and swearing there! He was highly versatile but could never have done John McClane. “Vote up” ++ for this fine statistical profile of a great Brit legend.
PS: Just re-watched Willis’ 1993 Striking Distance. Not a great film but I see it as harmless solid entertainment. You give it just 35% rating [“Oh ye of little faith!] but IMDB quotes a respectable 58% which for me is just about right. It reminded me once more of why I think that even as an action hero and ignoring his fine dramatic turns in Pulp Fiction and 6th Sense Willis in his heyday had far more charisma and screen presence that the likes The Rock, Statham or Stallone [or even Victor McLaglen!]
Hi Bob, you’re forgetting there are many great British actors that never picked up a knighthood: James Mason, David Niven, Jack Hawkins, Richard Burton and Cary Grant come straight to mind.
Arise Sir Leslie Townes Hope! – British-Born comedy legend Bob Hope did receive an honorary knighthood.
HI STEVE Fair point but I think though that when the huge number of movie stars + TV + stage + music + general entertainment artists are added up they form a significant group.
On top of the biggies like Sear Sean, Sir Maurice and my Sir Dirk we have had Anthony Quayle CBE, Vanessa Redgrave CBE, Sir Michael Redgrave CBE [Vanessa’s father] Dame Thora Hird DBE, Bryan Forbes CBE, Richard Attenborough CBE, Sir David Lean CBE, Dame Shirley Bassey DBE. I have to stop there as I could go on indefinitely . I wonder how many in the US and elsewhere have even heard of some of these people
Awards seem to me to especially go to those who remain close to the British entertainment industry. Among the 6 that you mention possibly only Hawkins could be said not to have become “Hollywoodised”. Grant in particular is always described as a “Hollywood Legend” and Liz did her nut on TV when, in a joint interview that she and Burton gave, the interviewer criticised Richard for deserting the English stage and compared him unfavourably with Mr Paul Scofield – sorry Paul Scofield CH, OBE [ie Order of the Companions of Honour and Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – there we go again, this time in spades!]
It often seems to me that many of those English performers who have been given high honours have received them for in effect being part of British “High” society and simply doing their jobs for which they may have already been well paid and been given numerous acting honours.
I have no objection to honours going to people who provide an extraordinary service which for example benefits others such as in America Rosa Parks who risked her liberty and even life by rebelling against racial segregation on buses, or in England someone like Churchill who was foremost in leading the British contribution in the 2nd World War.
But honours in the UK have become so commonplace that they are almost at the point of being meaningless except perhaps to a snob like Sir Ben Kingsley whose wife apparently left him because among other things he insisted her friends address him even in private as Sir Ben.
I worked in the Northern Ireland Civil Service and in the Civil Service knighthoods etc go with the job for those in the top posts even if they’ve done a bad job and I’m sure that whatever your own political views you could identify many politicians in each party who have been given high honours despite being absolute w*****s. As a current great American leader might express it “I like to tell it as it is!”
Baron Prescott of the British Labour Party spend his life criticising and demanding the abolition of the honours system but accepted a Barony when he retired and when challenged about the seeming hypocrisy of his position he replied that he hadn’t really wanted the honour but his wife had made him take it! Oh please tell me the one about The Three Bears!
Hey Bob…..”The Horse’s Mouth”…one of the few Guinness 1950’s British movies that actually cracked the Variety Top Grossing Movies list….the rest the numbers were done using books on Guinness…..which are my least favorite source for box office grosses.
In Danny Peary’s Alternate Oscar book…he gave the Oscar to Guinness for Horse’s Mouth….thus…I have always wanted to see that one.
Good thoughts on the Sirs/Knighthood…..lots of that information I did not know.
35% for Striking Distance……the professional critics destroyed that movie….I saw it in theaters…I thought it had some decent moments…..but you can tell the director/editor seemed confused in which way to go.
Good feedback as always.
HI BRUCE Thanks for your response to my Guinness post.The Work Horse’s Mouth even though it has just a $42 mill adjusted gross in your table did well in the States for a Brit comedy and was also successful over here. As I’ve mentioned before a few of Garbo’s movies which were [correctly] around the $42 million in your charts turned a small profit according to Wiki because of low costs.
“Horse” may have been lucky though because it was released the year immediately after Kwai and when Kwai was still going the rounds and that was of course the year in which Sir Alec got the Oscar.for “Bridge”.
Michael Winner’s 1971 The Nightcomers was still doing the rounds when Godpop surfaced in early 1972 and in fact The Nightcomers was still showing in one New York movie venue sandwiched among 6 theatres showing the Mafia blockbuster so that in an interview that I recall from those days Michael expressed the conviction that the “reflected Brando glory” would make the Winner flick a “profit picture” as he put it. Unfortunately Mike drew the joker from the pack as it seems in hindsight that the spin off good fortune was reserved for Bertolucci & Tango!
What highbrow critics can miss on occasions is that often moviegoers don’t always necessarily want a flick that’s full of high artistic content that anyway possibly only they, you, Steve and Joel can spot. Every now and again down to earth guys like me wish to lighten up with a film that gives just good solid entertainment and in my book Willis’ charisma provided that in Striking Distance and after 6 viewings of the latter I retain that simple opinion.
Willis kept the high art for 6th Sense and Pulp Fiction and the like. Of course the offerings of The Rock, Jason Statham and Hulk Hogan in particular usually combine for me at least low artistic content with stars that I find lacking in charisma. Thank goodness for The Meg!
There are only 15 films listed here.
Hey Dan….our power issues have screwed up our database…or at least…screwed up how our database talks to the website…..sadly WoC has gone to sleep….so I am trying to fix it myself…hopefully it will be uploaded correctly soon.
Hey Dan…all 44 movies are on the table now….the gateway from the database to the website is still messed up….but I was able to manually add in the missing 29 movies…..wow…I have become spoiled with the automatic ways WoC has set up. Thanks for the catch.