OBI-WAN KENOBI - THE MAN, THE JEDI

George Lucas on Obi-Wan Kenobi, talking to film publicist Alan Arnold in 1979: "The character started out as Luke's father and became the friend of Luke's father. I wanted a character who was an old warrior, very stately, a father image for Luke. He evolved out of that. He wasn't meant to be Christ-like, but rather a thoughtful and intelligent man with a noble bearing- a symbol of goodness and mystical power."

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image of Sir Alec Guinness.

TV ALERT: ALEC GUINNESS BIOGRAPHY/DOCUMENTARY ON UK TV

For anyone who wants to find out more about Sir Alec Guinness's life as an actor before, including and after STAR WARS, check out the UK BIOGRAPHY channel programme on him transmitting next Wednesday evening 11th August (repeated Thursday morning). Its very good and has a nice section on the original 1976 STAR WARS filming at ELSTREE.