Alec Guinness.
To this day I don’t understand how George Lucas convinced Alec Guinness to take a role in his movie.
It’s hard to believe now, but before Star Wars came out, it was expected to fail. Nobody thought it would succeed, let alone inspire a generation of rabid fans.
In fact, according to 20th Century Fox, only 40 theaters nationwide were initially interested in screening Star Wars.
If the trivia on IMDB is to be believed, Guinness took the role because
- He admired Lucas’s work on American Graffiti; and
- He found the story in the screenplay (but not the dialogue) compelling.
So there you have a bunch of young, unknown actors playing against the star of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia.
And it worked — he played his role perfectly, and he added much-needed gravitas to the story.