LONDON, Aug 7: Veteran British actor Sir Alec Guinness, whose career spanned six decades and took him from Shakespeare to Star Wars, has died at Ute age of 86, a hospital spokesman said today, reports AFP

Sir Alec, who won an Oscar for his performance in the 1957 war drama "Bridge over the River Kwai", died on Saturday evening after being taken ill two days earlier, said the spokesman tor the hosDltal in Midhurst, southern England.

The venerable British actor, beloved by generations of movie fans and revered for his versatility on both stage and screen, had been suffering from ill-health for a number of years.

Sir Alec Guinness was the last surviving member of an elite company of great classic actors of his day that also Included Laurence Olivier. John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.

Older cinema fans remember him tackling eight different roles in the 1949 comedy classic Kind Hearts and Coronets." while tils role as "Obi-Wan Kenobi" In the 1977 blockbuster "Star Wars" brought him a brand new audi-

In between times Lie surfaced in such time-honoured classics as Doctor Zhivago," Lawrence of Arabia", and "A Passage to India," while his television credits Included John Le Carre's Smiley in Tinker, Tailor. Soldier. Spy.

He still managed to find time for Shakespeare, depicting a memorable Shylock in a production of The Merchant of Venice Ln the mid 1980s.

He was knighted, in 1958. by Queen Elizabeth in appreciation of his talents.

Sir Alec was born into poverty London on April 2, 1914. of an unknown father whom he searched for. in vain, all his life.

He was brought up by an unstable mother and a brutal step-father.

He discovered the theatre at 16 but took a Job in an advertising company before taking to the boards in 1934 with the support of great Shakespearean actor John Gielgud.