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Ben Kingsley 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 , 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 (CBE) 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, the then-North Riding of Yorkshire. He is the son of Anna Lyna Mary (née Goodman),
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 *** 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 (as Dr. Watson alongside Michael Caine's
Sherlock Holmes), Suspect Zero, Bugsy (nominated for Best Supporting Actor), 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,
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 villain The Mandarin in Iron Man 3, and as Mazer Rackham in the
movie adaptation of Ender's Game. Honours
Kingsley was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) 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