Review by Choice Review
Author of many actor biographies (among them Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons, CH, Oct'02, and The Secret Woman: A Life of Peggy Ashcroft, CH, Sep'98), O'Connor now provides the first full-length life of the elusive, private, and even, to some, faceless actor Alec Guinness (1914-2000) since his death. In his autobiography, Blessings in Disguise (1985), Guinness illustrated his desire to be inconspicuous and almost invisible by offering few insights into his private life. O'Connor attempts to correct this, though almost obsessive attention to Guinness's bisexuality and speculation on his homosexual encounters gets tiresome, as does somewhat excessive treatment of his unhappy childhood and his late conversion to Catholicism. Guinness, who was married for more than 60 years, never revealed publicly any of his private proclivities. O'Connor does effectively explain the unique nature of Guinness as an actor; if not one of the great actors of the 20th century, Guinness was nevertheless an actor extraordinary for his intelligence, discipline, and imagination (and the quiet, subtle details in his characterizations). Carelessly proofed, negligibly documented, the book does include a useful list of Guinness's roles, a list of sources, and some good photos. This biography has no competitor. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, general readers. D. B. Wilmeth Brown University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
