Sir Alec Guiness dies

One of Britain's best known screen actors, Sir Alec Guinness, has died at the age of eighty-six.

Sir Alec, whose career spanned the widest possible range of roles -- from some of the earliest screen adaptations of the novels of Charles Dickens to the blockbuster Starwars films -- was regarded as the the ultimate screen performer.

He was equally at home in comedy and high drama -- from the English comedies made at the old Ealing studios, to the big screeen classics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service