10 War Movie Actors Who Were Actually There

David Niven isn't the only British actor who can lay claim to starring in potentially the country's greatest film - Alec Guinness was in three. Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia (the latter two being the most acclaimed examples of multiple collaborations with David Lean) cemented Guinness' status as one of the finest actors who ever lived, a theatrical performer of great versatility who delivered stirring monologues, witty exchanges and even seemingly inconsequential dialogue with a consistent level of craft and diligence.

Born in 1914, Guinness was of fighting age when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. He joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and commanded an Allied landing craft during the British, American, and Canadian-led invasion of Sicily in 1943, later partaking in operations to transport arms and supplies to the Yugoslav resistance.

While an experienced theatre actor before the war, Guinness made the transition to the silver screen in 1946, starring in two Charles Dickens adaptations from Lean before taking on arguably his greatest role as the delusional Colonel Nicholson - a British officer taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese - in 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Guinness would take on several more WW2 genre assignments in the years before and after the release of River Kwai, including Malta Story (where he portrayed an RAF pilot), Barnacle Bill (an Ealing comedy where Guinness portrayed a family tree of incompetent Naval officers), and Tunes of Glory (a post-war-set drama set in the Scottish Highlands).