As Hamlet - 1938 - Scanned from "Alec Guinness Master of Disguise" by Gary O'Connor (photo credit - Mander & Mitchenson)

As the Fool to Olivier's King Lear - 1946

...Later that year he joined John Gielgud's Repertory Company appearing in Noah, Romeo and Juliet and The Seagull. In 1956 he joined the Old Vic and took starring roles in Love's Labour's Lost, As You Like It, The Witch of Edmonton, and understudied Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. Sir Alec rejoined Gielgud for an outstanding season with Richard II, School for Scandal, Three Sisters and Merchant of Venice. He returned to the Old Vic in 1938 playing Hamlet in modern dress. He toured the continent and Egypt with this production, as well as Trelawney of the Wells, The Rivals and Henry V. In 1939 he played Romeo at the Scottish Theatre Festival, following this with Great Expectations, which he also adapted. In 1940 he appeared in Cousin Muriel, The Tempest with the Old Vic, and toured in Thunder Rock. Sir Alec appeared on Broadway in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path in the 1942-43 season. After completing service as an officer in the Royal Navy, he made his first film, Great Expectations. He returned to the London stage in his own adaptation of The Brothers Karamazov. From then on he split his time between theatre and films. Among the stage productions in which he has appeared in London since then are King Lear, Vicious Circle, An Inspector Calls, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Alchemist, St. Joan, The Government Inspector, Coriolanus, Twelfth Night and The Human Touch. Sir Alec starred in Cocktail Party in Edinburgh and New York in 1950. The following year he appeared as Hamlet in a controversial, but unsuccessful production which he also directed. Under the Sycamore Tree was his next stage vehicle. He crossed the Atlantic again in 1953 to initiate the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, appearing in Richard III and All's Well That Ends Well. Back in London he starred in The Prisoner, Hotel Paradise, both directed by Peter Glenville, and Ross. His most recent stage appearance was Edinburgh and London in the new Ionesco play Exit the King.