(3 of 9)
"Anonymity is to Alec," says a friend, "what the Channel is to England." His second line of defense is an impenetrable English hedge of middle-class respectability. Sewed up in a sober suit of excellent cut, clamped in a boiled collar, braced with his faithful brolly, Guinness looks as safe as the Tower.
He is shy and self-deprecating. He rarely refers to himself in the first person—usually as "one." He frequently covers his mouth when he laughs, can rarely bring himself to look anybody in the eye. He is painfully sensitive about his baldness, though he stoically refuses to wear a hairpiece in private life. He talks so quietly that people who talk with him usually wind up whispering, and he walks so softly, a colleague says, that "he is usually at your elbow before you know he is there. Sort of materializes like the Cheshire Cat." He has a tic of shrugging that comes on whenever he feels uncomfortable, and he seems to feel uncomfortable almost everywhere but at work and at home. He lives in dread of being recognized in public, and will hurry out of a shop without making a purchase if he thinks somebody has noticed him. He is also frightened of reporters, and his unconscious defense is to push ashtrays and pillows at them and keep asking, "Are you quite sure you're comfortable?"
Very few get past the Guinness reserve, but those who do report that the Alec nobody knows is a Joseph's coat of glowing talents and darkly mysterious seams and good grey patches of worsted virtue.
A Sense of Dignity. Alec is almost magically sensitive to people and to atmosphere. Director Lean "never knew anybody with so many antennae out at once. He knows more about you in a minute than most people would in a lifetime." Along with the sensitivity goes a quick, clear intelligence, soundly educated and widely informed, especially in the arts. His overriding passion is his work, but he is also a devoted husband and father. He met his wife Merula, an exactress, when they both played in Noah (1935)—she was a tiger, he a wolf. Son Michael, 16, attends Beaumont College near London. Though he makes few friends, Alec is intensely loyal to those he has—Actors John Gielgud, Peter Bull, Michael Gough, Actresses Kay Walsh, Cathleen Nesbitt, Irene Worth, Director Peter Glenville are among the closest. Alec is a generous man. Nothing is too much trouble or expense if it helps a promising young player. Despite his shyness, he is stubborn, determined, and has a strong sense of human dignity—including his own. "I will not be pushed about," he once announced politely but inflexibly during a contract negotiation, "like a bag of tea!"