Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor in 2002 for services to the British film industry. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and received the Britannia Award in 2013.
Born to an English mother and an Indian Gujarati father with roots in Jamnagar, Kingsley began his career in theatre, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 and spending the next 15 years appearing mainly on stage. His starring roles included productions of As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Also known for his television roles, he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, Joseph, Anne Frank: The Whole Story, and Mrs. Harris.
In film, Kingsley is principally known for his starring role as Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. For his portrayal of Itzhak Stern in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, he received a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. He was Oscar-nominated for Bugsy, Sexy Beast, and House of Sand and Fog. His other notable films include Maurice, Sneakers, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Death and the Maiden, Twelfth Night, Tuck Everlasting, Elegy, Shutter Island, and Hugo.
Kingsley played the character of Trevor Slattery in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the films Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the short film All Hail the King, and the Disney+ series Wonder Man. He also acted in the blockbusters Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Ender's Game. Kingsley lent his voice to the films The Boxtrolls, and The Jungle Book.
Early life, education and ancestry
Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji on 31 December 1943, in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire. His mother, Anna Lyna Mary , was an English actress and model, and she later gave birth to a second son called Sadrudin Bhanji, who later practised as a psychiatrist in Devon. She was born out of wedlock and "was loath to speak of her background". His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was born in Zanzibar to a family originating from the Indian city of Jamnagar, of Khoja Gujarati descent.Kingsley grew up in Pendlebury, Lancashire. Although his father was a Gujarati Khoja who practised Isma'ili Shia Islam, Kingsley was not raised in his father's faith; he is a Quaker. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, where one of his classmates was actor Robert Powell. Kingsley went on to study at De La Salle College in Salford, which later became home to The Ben Kingsley Theatre. While at college, he became involved in amateur dramatics in Manchester, making his professional stage debut on graduation, aged 23.
Kingsley's paternal grandfather, Harji Bhanji, was a successful spice trader who had moved from India to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, where Kingsley's father lived until moving to the United Kingdom at the age of 14. Kingsley's maternal grandfather was believed by the family to have been of Russian or German-Jewish descent, while his maternal grandmother was English and worked in the garment district of London's East End. 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." In 2016, he suggested that his maternal grandmother was impregnated by a Russian-Jewish immigrant who later abandoned her, which led her to become a "vile anti-Semite."
Career
1967–1981: Stage work and early career
After graduating, in 1966, Kingsley was approached by music producer and manager Dick James. James, who was the publisher of The Beatles, offered to mould Kingsley into a pop star. Kingsley declined James' offer, and instead chose to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 after an audition before Trevor Nunn. Devoting himself almost exclusively to stage work for the next 15 years, he made his West End debut for the company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1967 in a production of As You Like It. Further productions for the RSC included Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor.In the 1960s, Kingsley changed his name to Ben Kingsley, fearing that a foreign name would hamper his career. He told the Radio Times, "As soon as I changed my name, I got the jobs. I had one audition as Krishna Bhanji and they said, 'Beautiful audition but we don't quite know how to place you in our forthcoming season.' I changed my name, crossed the road, and they said when can you start?" In 1971 Kingsley made his Broadway debut playing Demetrius in the revival of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream acting with Patrick Stewart, Frances de la Tour and Martin Best. He played Mosca in Peter Hall's 1977 production of Ben Jonson's Volpone for the Royal National Theatre. In 1981 he returned to Broadway playing the title role in the Raymond Fitzsimmons play Edmund Kean. He played Willy Loman in a 1982 Sydney production of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman opposite Mel Gibson.
Kingsley began his transition to film roles early on, making his feature film debut playing a supporting role in the British action thriller Fear Is the Key in 1972. Kingsley continued to play small 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 1974 he played Thidias in a taped performance of the William Shakespeare play Antony and Cleopatra with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He acted alongside Patrick Stewart and Tim Pigott-Smith. In 1975, he starred as Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the historical drama The Love School and appeared in the TV miniseries Dickens of London the following year.
1982–1998: Transition to film and television
A turning point in Kingsley's career came with the historical biographical epic drama film Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough, in which Kingsley played the titular role of the anti-colonialist activist and peacemaker Mahatma Gandhi. The film was a critical and financial success with film critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times praising the casting of Kingsley in the lead role writing, "makes the role so completely his own that there is a genuine feeling that the spirit of Gandhi is on the screen. Kingsley's performance is powerful without being loud or histrionic; he is almost always quiet, observant, and soft-spoken on the screen, and yet his performance comes across with such might that we realize, afterward, that the sheer moral force of Gandhi must have been behind the words." Kingsley went on to win numerous accolades for his performance including the Academy Award for Best Actor, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his performance.Following the success of the film Gandhi, Kingsley appeared in a variety of films, including the 1983 British drama film Betrayal, which was an adaptation of the 1978 play of the same title by Harold Pinter and also features actors, Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge. For this performance, Kingsley won the Evening Standard British Film Awards.
In 1985, Kingsley appeared in the John Irvin directed British drama Turtle Diary, which co-starred Glenda Jackson. This film was based on the 1975 novel of the same title and was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter. Sheila Benson of The Los Angeles Times praised their performances writing, "No filmic cliches, no swelling musical score; these are no "littul peeple" who melt into each other's arms, but blessedly real people, who get exhausted and don't talk all the time." During that same year, he appeared in the BBC adaptation of Silas Marner as the titular character.
In 1987, Kingsley acted in the Merchant-Ivory costume drama Maurice. This film was adapted from the 1971 novel of the same title by E. M. Forster and it also features the actors Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Simon Callow, and Denholm Elliott. The following year, Kingsley played multiple roles including the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich in Testimony, Basil Pascali in Pascali's Island and Dr. John Watson in Without a Clue.
In 1991, Kingsley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the organised crime figure Meyer Lansky in Bugsy. Shortly thereafter, he played the supporting character of Cosmo in the thriller film Sneakers, Vice-President Gary Nance in Dave and the chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini in Searching for Bobby Fischer.
In 1993, Kingsley portrayed the Holocaust survivor Itzhak Stern alongside Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's historical drama film, Schindler's List. The film was a critical and commercial success, and Kingsley received a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote of his performance, "Kingsley must act within much more rigid constraints as his trusted accountant Stern, a man who feels he must never make a misstep. Role is reminiscent of Alec Guinness' deluded Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai; in his compulsion to do a perfect job for Schindler, he often seems to forget that he's working for the enemy."
In 1994, Kingsley starred alongside Sigourney Weaver in Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden, having previously acted with her in Dave. Two years later, Kingsley portrayed Feste in Twelfth Night, a film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, which also features the actors Helena Bonham Carter, Nigel Hawthorne, and Richard E. Grant. In a mixed review, Todd McCarthy of Variety noted his performance as a highlight writing, "Ben Kingsley brings some nice readings to his rather mysterious role of Feste, the commentator on the convoluted proceedings."
In 1997, Kingsley provided a voice in the video game Ceremony of Innocence. The following year, he was the head of the jury at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival and starred in the family film Spooky House, saying he had chosen a role in a lighter film after acting in roles that left him feeling traumatised.