Sir Alec Guinness died at age 86 on Saturday, 5 August, from liver cancer.

`The world has lost a great artist,' said George Lucas, creator of the `Star Wars' movies that, beginning in 1977, brought Guinness to a vast international audience, winning him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. His role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in `Star Wars' and its two sequels that brought Guinness pop culture celebrity

Guinness had garnered the best actor Oscar for playing a British colonel in David Lean's 1957 film, `The Bridge On the River Kwai.' In 1980, he received an honorary Oscar for his overall career.

His passing marks Britain's loss of one of its most treasured elder statesmen actors.