Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is an English actor.
In a career spanning over 40 years, he has won an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA, two Golden Globes
and Screen Actors Guild awards.
He is known for his starring role as Mohandas Gandhi in the 1982 film Gandhi, for which
he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
He is also known for his performances in the films Schindler's List, Sexy Beast, Lucky
Number Slevin, Shutter Island, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Hugo, and Iron Man 3.
In 2013 he received the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles 'Albert
R. Broccoli Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment'.
Kingsley was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000, and was made
a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.
In 2010, Kingsley was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in
Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire.
He is the son of Anna Lyna Mary, an actress and model who appeared in films in the 1920s
and 1930s, and Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, a medical doctor.
Kingsley's father, born in Kenya, was of Gujarati Indian Ismaili Muslim Khoja descent.
Kingsley's paternal grandfather was a spice trader who had moved from India to Zanzibar,
where Kingsley's father lived until moving to Britain at the age of 14.
Kingsley's mother was British; she was born out of wedlock, and "was loath to speak of
her background".
Kingsley's maternal grandfather was believed by the family to have been of Russian- or
German-Jewish descent, while Kingsley's maternal grandmother was of English background, and
worked in the garment district of East London.
Kingsley stated in 1994: "I'm not Jewish... and though there might be some Russian-Jewish
heritage way back on my mother's side, the thread is so fine there's no real evidence".
Kingsley grew up in Pendlebury, near Manchester.
He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, where one of his classmates was the actor
Robert Powell.
Early career Kingsley studied at the University of Salford
and at Pendleton College, which later became home to the Ben Kingsley Theatre.
Whilst at college he became involved in amateur dramatics in Manchester, making his professional
stage debut on graduation, aged 23.
In 1967 he made his London West End theatre debut at the Aldwych Theatre.
Later he was spotted by music producer and manager Dick James, who offered to mould Kingsley
into a pop star, but Kingsley chose to join the Royal Shakespeare Company after an audition
before Trevor Nunn.
Devoting himself almost exclusively to stage work for the next 15 years, he made his Broadway
debut in 1971 with the RSC.
Kingsley played Mosca in Peter Hall's 1977 production of Ben Jonson's Volpone for the
Royal National Theatre, and in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's
Dream.
At about this time, he changed his name from Krishna Pandit Bhanji to Ben Kingsley, fearing
that a foreign name would hamper his career; he took his stage surname from his paternal
grandfather's nickname, "King Clove".
He also starred in the role of Willy Loman in a 1982 production of Death of a Salesman
in Sydney, Australia opposite Mel Gibson.
Film and television career Kingsley made the transition to film roles
early on, with his first role coming in Fear Is the Key, released in 1972.
Kingsley continued starring in bit roles in both film and television, including a role
as Ron Jenkins on the soap opera Coronation Street from 1966 to 1967 and regular appearances
as a defence counsel in the long-running British legal programme Crown Court.
In 1975, he starred as Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the BBCs historical drama The Love School.
He found fame only years later, starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the Academy Award-winning
film Gandhi in 1982, his best-known role to date.
The film was a critical and financial success, and Kingsley won the Academy Award for Best
Actor for his performance.
Kingsley has since appeared in a variety of roles.
His credits included the films Turtle Diary, Maurice, Pascali's Island, Without a Clue,
Suspect Zero, Bugsy, Sneakers, Dave, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Schindler's List, Silas
Marner, Death and the Maiden, Sexy Beast, for which he received another Academy Award
nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and House of Sand and Fog, which led to an Oscar
nomination for Best Actor.
He won a Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2001.
In 1997, he provided voice talent for the video game Ceremony of Innocence.
In 1998, he was the head of the jury at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.
In July 2006, he received an Emmy nomination for his performance in the made-for-TV film
Mrs. Harris, in which he played famed cardiologist Herman Tarnower, who was murdered by his jilted
lover, Jean Harris.
Later that year, Kingsley appeared in an episode of The Sopranos entitled "Luxury Lounge",
playing himself.
In the show, characters Christopher Moltisanti and Carmine Lupertazzi offer him a role in
the fictional slasher film Cleaver, which he turns down.
Lupertazzi offers him the role on the basis of Kingsley's real-life performance in Sexy
Beast.
In 2007, Kingsley appeared as a Polish American mobster in the Mafia comedy You Kill Me, and
a hitman in War, Inc.
In 2010, Kingsley worked voicing a character named Sabine in Lionhead Studios game Fable
III, and starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese.
He appeared in Scorsese's next film, Hugo, and signed up to appear in a new feature by
Neil Jordan and John Boorman entitled Broken Dream.
In 2013, he appeared as the villain The Mandarin in Iron Man 3, and as the hero Mazer Rackham
in Ender's Game.
Kingsley will voice Bagheera in Disney's reboot of The Jungle Book.
Honours
Kingsley was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.
He was made a knight bachelor in the 2002 New Year Honours.
The award was announced on 31 December 2001, which happened to be Kingsley's 58th birthday.
After receiving his award from Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Kingsley stated; "I
told the Queen that winning an Oscar pales into insignificance - this is insurmountable.
I'm fascinated by the ancient, by mythology, by these islands and their tradition of story
telling.
I feel that I am a story teller and to receive a knighthood is really recognition of that."
His demand to be called 'Sir' was documented by the BBC, to some criticism.
Since then, Kingsley appears to have altered his stance; credits for his latest films refer
to him as Ben Kingsley.
Co-star Penélope Cruz was reportedly unsure what to call him during the filming of Elegy
as someone had told her she needed to refer to him as "Sir Ben".
One day it slipped out as such, and she called him that for the remainder of the shoot.
In 1984, he won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Nonmusical Recording for The Words
of Gandhi.
He was awarded the Indian civilian honour Padma Shri in 1984.
In May 2010, Kingsley was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In April 2013, Kingsley was honoured with the Fellowship Award at The Asian Awards in
London.
Personal life Kingsley has been married four times and has
four children: Thomas Bhanji and artist Jasmin Bhanji, with actress Angela Morant, and Edmund
Kingsley and Ferdinand Kingsley, both of whom became actors, with theatrical director Alison
Sutcliffe.
In 2005, he divorced German-born Alexandra Christmann, having been "deeply, deeply shocked"
after pictures of her kissing another man surfaced on the Internet.
On 3 September 2007, Kingsley married Daniela Lavender, a Brazilian actress, at Eynsham
Hall, in North Leigh, Oxfordshire.
Filmography
References
External links Ben Kingsley at the Internet Movie Database