Vic Guinness (December 27, 1891-January 26, 1953) was a combat veteran, actor, art director, painter, and vaudevillian. He was a prisoner of war in WWI who escaped twice, beaten up by his German captors, and escaped again. Guinness served as an artist in World War II for the U.S. Marine Corps and created striking recruiting posters.
Guinness was elected to The Lambs in 1936 as a Professional member. He donated two portraits to The Lambs: Shepherd Raymond Peck and Treasurer Bob Hague. Guinness was close friends with another Lamb with a history of creating wartime posters, Lamb James Montgomery Flagg.
He was born William Henry Victor Gunnis on December 27, 1891. He adopted the Vic Guinness stage name when he entered show business.
Guinness grew up in Philadelphia and began sketching as a youth while attending local schools. After high school, he became the amateur lightweight boxing champion of Pennsylvania.
He fell into acting and dancing the soft shoe. Lamb Joe Laurie Jr., an expert on Vaudeville, saw Guinness early in his career. “He learned one-legged jigging from some colored kids,” Laurie said, “and then went to Al White’s dancing school to get the other leg going.”
Guinness made silent movies to be shown in nickelodeons, appearing with such stars in the nascent New York movie business as Arthur V. Johnson, Alice Joyce, and Pauline Welch. Guinness says Jesse L. Lasky tried to bring him to California in 1908 when the industry was shifting West. Lasky wanted him to make a picture with an unknown star, Mary Pickford. Guinness’ dad talked him out of the deal. He never forgot it. He stayed on the East Coast in a Vaudeville act with Pauline Welch, “The Artist and His Dream Girl.” Guinness wound up playing an artist onstage before actually pursuing art as a profession.
In 1914, he relocated to Paris to study art. When the Great War began that summer, Guinness was stuck in Paris. He moved to London but was broke and had no prospects. Guinness signed up for a hitch in the British Army. He spent nine months with the Royal Engineers. Upon his discharge he was shocked to see the U.S. wasn’t going to let him back into the country because he had sworn allegiance to the King. Guinness won an appeal to be allowed to return to Pennsylvania. He must have missed Army life, because in 1916 he joined the National Guard. This got him on a train to Mexico, where the U.S. Army was trying to find Pancho Villa in the border campaign.
Guinness was discharged in February 1917. He returned to New York to continue his career. Two months later, the U.S. joined the Allies to fight the Central Powers. Guinness recalled he was leaving a library when he saw an Army recruiter on horseback, holding the reins of a second horse. The recruiter asked if any man would fill the empty saddle with him. Guinness, naturally, could not resist, and said, “I will.” He joined on the spot and would spend the next 28 months in uniform, barely surviving.
He served in France in the 108th Field Artillery, 28th Division, and was thrown into the front lines. With his art talent, he was pressed to sketch what he saw on the battlefield for Army Intelligence. Guinness became trapped between trenches in No Man’s Land, and was captured by the German Army. They beat him, knocked his teeth out, and stripped his uniform and possession off him. He escaped, and was captured again, and beaten. After his third escape, he hid out in a barn in the small Belgian town of Bouillon, on the French border. Guinness was in hiding when the Armistice was declared; he stumbled out and peasants found him nearly naked and badly beaten up. His weight had dropped from 156 to 108. After a long hospital recovery, he returned home in 1919.
Guinness returned to Philadelphia. He was an art director at Wannamaker’s department store, an illustrator for the Philadelphia Record, and a cartoonist. He entered the world of newspaper comic strips in the 1920s, before returning to New York. There he joined the Daily Mirror in 1933 as the art director at a time when the paper had a daily circulation of three million. This brought Guinness more opportunities during the Depression. He joined The Lambs, the Friars, and the Pen and Ink Club. He taught art at Marine Corps Base Quantico.
When World War II opened, Guinness decided he did not want to miss serving, despite being 50. The Marine Corps commissioned him a captain and named him their official artist. Guinness painted scores of memorable recruiting posters, and was sent to battlefields to create sketches and portraits. He created “Saipan and Tinian” for the branch; it later went on tour.
For five years, Guinness painted large portraits of the many Marine generals and commanders. When the war was over, Major Guinness returned to New York, continued his art career, and looked for a change.
When Guinness was in his fifties, he decided that he’d travelled enough. He and his wife, Florence Cain, had a daughter during the war. Around 1947, he moved his family and studio to the small town of Naugatuck, south of Waterbury, Connecticut. He volunteered to teach art at the local high school, and painted rural scenery. He set up a studio and created portraits of locals. In this time period he signed his artwork “William H. Victor Guinness” and often created religious themed art.
Vic Guinness died January 26, 1953, of heart disease. He was 61 years old. Guinness was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 3, Grave No. 2337.
–Researched and written by Club Shepherd Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, 2025.