Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor, of Gujarati Indian descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman), was an English actress. Ben began to act in stage plays during the 1960s. He soon became a successful stage actor, and also began to have roles in films and television. His birth name was Krishna Bhanji, but he changed his name to “Ben Kingsley”” soon after gaining fame as a stage actor, fearing that a foreign name could hamper his acting career.Kingsley first earned international fame for his performance in the drama movie Gandhi (1982). His performance as Mohandas K. Gandhi earned him international fame. He won many awards – including an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also won Golden Globe, BAFTA and London Film Critics’ Circle Awards. After acting in Gandhi (1982), Ben was recognized as one of the finest British actors.After his international fame for appearing in Gandhi (1982), Kingsley appeared in many other famous movies. His success as an actor continued. His performance as Itzhak Stern in the drama movie Schindler’s List (1993) earned him a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actor. Schindler’s List (1993) won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. During the late 1990s, Kingsley acted in many successful movies. He played Sweeney Todd in the television movie The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1997), for which he was nominated for the Screen Actors’ Guild Award. His other notable role was as Otto Frank in the television movie Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), for which he won the Screen Actors’ Guild Award.In 2002, Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s New Years Honours for his services to drama. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment. That same year, he also received the Fellowship Award at the Asian Awards in London, England.”
Ben Kingsley
Movies
The Jungle Book
Living among the wolves in the jungle, young man cub Mowgli quickly learns to live life among his wolf pack and all the animals that inhabit the jungle, but when the villainous tiger Shere Khan threatens Mowgli’s life, black panther Bagheera offers to take Mowgli to a nearby man village…
Fun Facts
Attended and graduated from Manchester Grammar School in Manchester, England.
He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to drama.
Derived his stage name from his grandfather's nickname "Clove King"". His grandfather was a spice trader in Zanzibar.
Kingsley's father
Quotes
In an ideal way, in an ideal world, myself and the director are one. And as you rightly say, in an ideal world, you can't see the horizon between sky and sea. I felt that the times with Spielberg [Steven Spielberg] on Schindler's List (1993), we were moving as one creature.
[on winning the Oscar for Best Actor in Gandhi (1982)] If I knew I was going to win, I would not have gone dressed as a waiter.
As an actor, there's no autonomy, unless you're prepared to risk the possibility of starving.
Hopefully, as I get older in the business, I make my choices more accurately, and I perhaps know from either the script or the first meeting that it isn't going to work.
All the great writers root their characters in true human behavior.
As a singer, I might have fallen among thieves. I wonder if I'd still be alive by now.
Being a leading man on a film set under the direction of somebody like Dickie Attenborough [Sir Richard Attenborough] is very empowering, and you have to be extremely careful how you use that power.
But comedy I'd love to do as much as humanly possible.
[on the holocaust] It's like a big, hulking monster squatting in the middle of our history and it won't go away.
[on actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan] It was a pleasure working with Aishwarya in The Last Legion (2007), and her fans are in for a big surprise. She is an excellent and outstanding actor. She is a shining example of beauty from India, and I'm sure we will be seeing her in more Hollywood movies real soon. (August 2006)
[on his heritage] 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.
[on Hailee Steinfeld] She's very focused, very mature in her work, and I can see her simply going from strength to strength. She's very well-rooted in her craft. There's nothing woolly or peripheral about her.
I actually don't ever really socialize on the film-set. I'm hermit-like. I go home, get room service and I work on the lines for tomorrow, because that's my job. I can have fun other ways, other times, but for me the joy of acting is to know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.
Glue all of my films together and arrange them in a certain kind of way and you will have the history of 20th and 21st century by SBK [Sir Ben Kingsley].