Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born February 5, 1948), better known as
Christopher Guest, is a British-American
screenwriter,
composer,
musician,
director,
actor and
comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several "
mockumentary" films that feature a
repertory-like
ensemble cast. In the United Kingdom, he holds a Baronial
peerage, and has publicly expressed a desire to see the
House of Lords reformed as a democratically-elected chamber. Despite initial activity in the Lords, his career there was cut short by the
House of Lords Act 1999.
Early years
Guest was born in
New York City, the son of
Peter Haden-Guest, a British
United Nations diplomat who later became 4th Baron Haden-Guest, and his second wife, Jean Pauline Hindes, a former vice president of casting at
CBS.
Guest's maternal grandparents were
Jewish immigrants from Russia, while a paternal great-grandfather was Colonel
Albert Goldsmid, a British Jew who founded the
Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade.
Although both of Guest's parents were born
Jewish, they became
atheists and Guest had no religious upbringing.
