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40 Insights into the Lives of Famous War Veterans

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2019 26 min

23. Obi Wan Kennobi (Sir Alec Guinness) was a Royal Navy Veteran

One of Britain’s greatest stage and film actors, Sir Alec Guinness (1914 – 2000) began his career in the theater at age 20, while still a drama student, and by age 22, he had attracted attention as a Shakespearean actor. In subsequent decades, he had an Oscar winning performance in 1957’s Bridge on the River Kwai, as well as notable performances in Great Expectations and Oliver Twist in the 1940s, and Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia in the 1960s. He is perhaps best known today as Obi Wan Kenobi of the Star Wars trilogy – which he, ironically, thought was tripe. Less known is that he was a British Royal Navy WWII veteran.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.