Back in the 1980s, Ian McKellen came out publicly in order to protest the UK’s Section 28, which banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools. It was a law that caused great controversy and many saw as a sharp right turn after years in which British society seemed to be slowly opening up to gay people.

However it turns out not everyone was pleased with McKellen’s decision to step forward and start fighting for gay rights. At the LGBTI Pride gala dinner held in the Lord Mayor of London’s Mansion House, McKellen told the audience, “Alec Guinness took me out to lunch and said: ‘You really should not, as a leading actor, have anything to do with anything political, especially anything as dirty as homosexuality. I beg you not to do it.’ That was self-hatred”

As with several other top actors from Guinness’ era, the Star Wars actor wasn’t purely straight (it’s believed he was bisexual), but despite plenty of evidence the press knew about, his stature meant it was rarely mentioned, even when homosexual acts were illegal. Guinness was married but is believed to have had numerous male lovers and was once arrested for having sex in a public toilet in Liverpool in 1946. Also like many LGBT people of his period, he never fully embraced his sexuality and as his comments to McKellen suggest, it was something he never really accepted even in his later years.

Guinness is though considered to be one of the great British actors of the 20th Century, and while many best remember him for Star Wars, he won a Best Actor Oscar for The Bridge on the River Kwai and appeared in the likes of Lawrence Of Arabia, The Lavender Hill Mob and Kind Hearts and Coronets. (Quotes via GayStarNews)