Classic Film Stars Who Were Actually Really Eccentric People

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

The original Obi Wan Kenobi, Alec Guinness was one of Britain's biggest screen icons. Classy, understated, able to blend perfectly into any part, he was the quintessential Englishman. At least, on screen he was. Off screen, Guinness was a bizarre control freak who wouldn't let anyone make their own decisions and spent his every waking hour seeking to undermine his long-suffering wife (via The Telegraph).

In his definitive biography on the star, Piers Paul Read revealed that nearly every meeting he'd had with Guinness over the years had been remarkably odd. Guinness apparently loved to meet for meals, where he'd ask everyone at the table what they wanted. The moment they replied, Guinness would declare, "No, no, you wouldn't like that!" then call the waiter over and order them the exact opposite. According to Read, Guinness had an obsessively precise idea of how every interaction should go and refused to be contradicted on such matters.

His home life was also odd. Guinness had grown up with an absent father and a mother who was a drunken thief, and his hatred of her had turned into a kind of reflexive misogyny. As an adult, this expressed itself in open resentment and belittling of his wife, Merula, whom he considered stupid. Weirdly, Read suggests Guinness recognized his own jerkbag nature and desperately tried to keep it bottled up, only to have it come seeping out. Merula, for her part, seems to have decided to ignore her husband's oafishness.

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