Sir Alec Guinness Obituaryby Michael Lee

He hated his part in it, you know.

But honestly, I don't care. Those three movies -- and his part as Obi Wan -- changed my life.

I knew this day was coming -- once I had to prove to a bunch of friends that yes, Sir Alec Guinness wasn't dead -- not yet, anyway. Now he's gone, and only his work remains.

I could go on about the other things he's done -- his Oscar winning performance for The Bridge on the River Kwai, his role as George Smiley on Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And many of those are undoubtably roles that he was better at, he enjoyed more and had more pride in than his role as Obi Wan Kenobi in the three Star Wars films. But there'd be something slightly dishonest about it personally -- it was his role that added the credibility that made those films define a generation.

I wasn't surprised to hear that he died; I knew he had been in ill health. Born in 1914, he was part of that great generation of British actors that have slowly left us over the years. The kind of actors that aren't really around as much anymore.

He may not have cared about that one role that he brings to mind to my generation. But for that role, in those films that have had a huge impact on making me the person I am today, I'm thankful for his life and for his work, and I'm sad to see him go. He became more powerful than even he could possibly imagine.

Views Home Ultraviolet Review: Tales of the Undead. (08/02/2000) New Video Picks: Films for fans. (08/01/2000) MISFITS at Diversicon: How did all of those pillows get there? 07/31/2000 New Video Picks: New ones at last (07/24/2000) CONvergence 2000: Michael Lee's pictures and thoughts. (07/18/2000)

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Michael Lee stepped into the MISFITS Website and vanished .... He woke to find himself trapped on the Internet, facing pages that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change the MISFITS Website for the better. His only guide on this journey is Professor Maxwell Misfittle, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Mike can see and hear. And so Mr. Lee finds himself leaping from site to site, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. Michael previously reviewed Ultraviolet.