Anne says on 27/Sep/09
Whatever height Guiness was, he was certainly humourous as Jamesir Bensonmum in Murder By Death. Amongst other male actors who were considered short to average in height. Oh, and Bensonmum's father was named Howard.

Frank2 says on 13/Sep/09
Like I said, Guiness was 5'7":

Click Here

Peter Bull wasn't exactly tall:

Click Here

Three elderly icons (L to R) Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier and Alec Guinness:

Click Here

Peak height for Richardson was 6', for Olivier about 5'10" and for Guinness, 5'7". By the time of this photo Richardson was down to about 5'10". Olivier was no more that about 5'8' and Guinness was still close to 5'7". Maybe the taller one happens to be, the more height they lose with age. Over the years I'd run into Mickey Rooney and he never seemed to shrink. Of course he was barely over 5' tall peak. Cornel Wilde lost quite a bit of height. He was at least 6'1" peak and by the time I met him which was in the 1980s wasn't much over 5'10". It appears that Clint Eastwood, and James Garner have lost serious inches, especially Garner who's gone from 6'1.5" down to roughly 5'10".

Here's Guinness with 5'10" Omar Sharif and 6'1" Peter O'Toole:

Click Here

As you can see, O'Toole towers over Guinness. For his close scenes with O'Toole, they put Guinness on a box. Plus I'm sure Guinness wore lifts under those long robes.

boswell says on 12/Sep/09
In 1975 I walked right by him in a street in London. I'm 5'8" and I think he would be very close to that. 5'9ish might be right. I can still see him in my mind, eyelids lowered, fiddling with a coat button as he came out a doorway ahead of me, looking very unpreposessing and inward, walking by. I saw a legend and I'll never forget it.

hb45 says on 12/Jan/07
In Star wars, Alec Guiness seemed to be 1m75, compared to Mark Hamill (1m72) and Harrison Ford (1m85). Did he wear lifts to reach that height? That's the question! But it's possible he did since he wore boots in Star Wars, very convenient for lifts!!! One thing is for sure, the Force was with him and it could help too...

Anonymous says on 1/Sep/06
Whatever height the late Mr. Guinness stood, there is a scene in "Lawrence of Arabia" in which he and tallish Peter O'Toole are about eye to eye.

Glenn says on 30/Apr/06
Sorry Frank.I was wrong about you.

Frank2 says on 30/Apr/06
Thanks Glenn. And believe me, no way am I singling you out to dispute what you're saying. I'm arguing with everybody with the same vigor.

Glenn says on 30/Apr/06
I agree on this one Frank.never met him.but its easy to tell in films he is no bigger than 5-8.

Frank2 says on 28/Apr/06
Whatever height he might have looked to you, Alec was no more than 5'7". It's easy to fake people's sizes on film. It's done all the time.

Claiming he was 5'10" was just another showbiz myth.

Picture says on 28/Apr/06
I don't know much about his later work (in fact I have never seen star wars!)
In his older movie's he could look from 5 ft 9 to 5 ft 11. Maybe he did waer lifts, but I think that 5 ft 7 goes to far.

Picture says on 27/Apr/06
Never looked that short in his movie's, not even at his end (on the 5 ft 7)

[Editor Rob: look at the pic of him in 1980 though...shorter than Morecambe and not much taller than ernie wise...Morecambe was 5ft 8 range]

Editor Rob says on 22/Apr/06
Copied from O'Toole page

Frank2 said:

Guinness with 5'10" Omar Shariff: Click Here

Shariff with 5'11" Viggo Mortensen: Click Here

Maybe David Lean used tall Japanese actors in The Bridge on the River Kwai: Click Here

5'8" Stanley Holloway with 5'7" Alec Guinness: Click Here

Holloway next to 6' Rex Harrison: Click Here
And Rex was 6'. He was shorter than 6'1" Martin Landau in Cleopatra and wore huge lifts in The Agony and the Ecstacy so he wouldn't look so short next to 6'3" Charlton Heston.

Guinness with 5'6" John Mills: Click Here
The photo is tilted to make Guinness appear taller. And in the film, Guinness wore huge lifts so that in some scenes he towers over Mills.

Mills with 6' British stuntman Patrick "Paddy" Boyd: Click Here

Mills with 5'9.5" Kenneth Branagh: Click Here

Mills with 6'2" Prince Phillip: Click Here

In the British version of The Big Sleep starring Bob Mitchum, Mills came up to Mitchum's nose! I suppose Mitchum wore lifts!

What I do know is that Guinness was only 5'7" and wore lifts in almost every film he appeared in. Even with his lifts he was still hardly any taller than Grace Kelly in The Swan.