Any truth in this Alec Guinness Star Wars Story?

[gerry]

With all the hype of the new Star Wars movie.I recall hearing a story regarding Alec Guinness & wondered if anyone knew if it was true.The story is that Alec Guinness wasn't a fan of the Star Wars movies & didn't see what all the fuss was about.This surprised me as he starred in all 3 movies.Does anyone know if the story is true?

[RogK]

I think it is true, yes - probably just a couple of weeks' work to him. Rumour also has it that he didn't accept a fee but negotiated a cut of the worldwide box-office (indicating that he saw the films' commercial worth). They say he earned about �23m.

[Mattk]

it isnt that surprising really as there are probably many people who are left cold by star wars !

ewan macgregor hated making the movies but will always be proud to have been a part of it

[Aschenbach]

Alec Guiness was plagued by dozens of letters and requests for autographs from Star Wars fans in his later years which his eventually ignored and he writes about in his book 'My Name Escapes Me'.

[flashpig]

Didn't his ROTJ scenes only take a day to film?

I would have done in anything if the �/hour was that good, and all he had to do was stand about and look ghostly.

I wish I was Alec Guinness.

[jno]

he wasn't just not a fan, he hated it and persuaded Lucas to kill his character off. He threw away fan mail unopened. It made him very rich, but he felt a long and fine career on stage and screen was being overshadowed by a single role spouting drivel. As a very devout man, he probably also felt uncomfortable with the semi-religious way people regarded the films, entering Jedi as their religion on census forms and so on.

[flaming]

Flashpig didn't ought to wish that, as A.G. has taken his final bow. You can't take it with.

 A.G. really valued his privacy, apparently. The first Star Wars film was probably OK for him but he did grow to resent the films and ensuing fuss, as other AB posts say.  I liked him in lots of other roles.  He was wonderful as Smiley in the TV adaptation of John LeCarre's work "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" many years ago.  I was a firm fan of the book and when I read that A.G. would play Smiley I was disappointed.  However, I was wrong as he proved to be an excellent choice, and thereafter my mind picture of Smiley was A.G.

Patrick McGoohan as No.6. in TV's "The Prisoner" wouldn't even talk about his role a few years after, and probably never has. The trouble for these two actors was that the characters they played grew to be so great people only wanted to identify the actors with those long-ago performed roles.

We'd all like the dosh but would we want something to take over our lives like that?

[ninja]

I read that he was the only original cast member to have a merchandise percentage clause written into his contract, which made him the highest earner out of all the cast from Star Wars Ep1: A New Hope.