Ben Kingsley

Biography

Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received 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 (his West End debut for the company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1967), 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 (1989), Joseph (1995), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), and Mrs. Harris (2006). In film, Kingsley is known for his starring role as Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982), for which he subsequently 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 (1993), he received a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. He was Oscar-nominated for Bugsy (1990), Sexy Beast (2000), and House of Sand and Fog (2003). His other notable films include Maurice (1987), Sneakers (1992), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Death and the Maiden (1994), Twelfth Night (1996), Tuck Everlasting (2002), Elegy (2008), Shutter Island (2010), and Hugo (2011). Kingsley played the character of Trevor Slattery in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Iron Man 3 (2013), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and the upcoming Disney+ series Wonder Man. He also acted in the blockbusters Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) and Ender's Game (2013). Kingsley lent his voice to the films The Boxtrolls (2014) and The Jungle Book (2016). Description above from the Wikipedia article Ben Kingsley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

The Rabbi

Lucky Number Slevin

Fagin

Oliver Twist

Itzhak Stern

Schindler's List

Specialist (voice)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi

Dr. Roberto Miranda

Death and the Maiden

Cosmo

Sneakers

Self

To Be Hamlet

Charles Hatton

A Sound of Thunder

Potifar

Joseph

Self

C.S. Lewis: Dreamer of Narnia

Meyer Lansky

Bugsy

Graydon

What Planet Are You From?

Lenin

Lenin: The Train

Ambassador Mourain

Rules of Engagement

Behrani

House of Sand and Fog

Harry Fertig

The Confession

Vice-President Nance

Dave

Dr. Cawley

Shutter Island

Narrator (voice)

The Ten Commandments

Avatar

Slipstream

Grinko

TransSiberian

Don Logan

Sexy Beast

Major Caterpillar

Alice in Wonderland

Benjamin O'Ryan

Suspect Zero

Frank Falenczyk

You Kill Me

David Kepesh

Elegy

Royale

Fear Is the Key

Guru Tugginmypuddha

The Love Guru

Lasker-Jones

Maurice

Dr. John Watson

Without a Clue

Nizam

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Walken / The Viceroy

War, Inc.

Xavier Fitch

Species

Selim

Harem

Ambrosinus

The Last Legion

Perci Trachtenberg

तीन पत्ती

Emperor Kisra

Desert Warrior

Hermocrates

The Triumph of Love

Man in the Yellow Suit

Tuck Everlasting

Dr. Squires

The Wackness

Bruce Pandolfini

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Milton Robinson

Jules

The Hood

Thunderbirds

Martin Boyne

The Children

Self

50 Films to See Before You Die

Feste

Twelfth Night

Georges Méliès

Hugo

Imdad Khan / Croupier

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Fergus

Fifty Dead Men Walking

Self - Narrator

Islam: Empire of Faith

Amos

The Assignment

Trevor Slattery

Iron Man 3

Mazer Rackham

Ender's Game

Zvi Rabinowitz

The Killer's Game

Self - Narrator (2019) (voice)

Schindler

Tamir

The Dictator

Narator

A Force More Powerful

Herman Tarnower

Mrs. Harris

Silas Marner

Silas Marner

Voice

The Desert of Forbidden Art

Self

Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust

William Snow

Turtle Diary

Renzo Locatelli

Parting Shots

The Man

A Common Man

Freddie (voice)

Freddie as F.R.O.7.

Narrator

It Is No Dream: The Life Of Theodor Herzl

The Great Zamboni

Spooky House

Therapist

A Therapy

Dmitri Shostakovich

Testimony

Self

No Strings Attached: The Making of Thunderbirds

Basil Pascali

Pascali's Island

Self

Shutter Island: Into the Lighthouse

Self

The Mechanical Man at the Heart of 'Hugo'

Self

Shoot the Moon: The Making of 'Hugo'

Self

The Cinemagician, Georges Méliès

Self

Sacha Baron Cohen: Role of a Lifetime

Sweeney Todd

The Tale of Sweeney Todd

Robert

Betrayal

Merenkahre

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Duval

Camille

Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

The Physician

Kagan

BloodRayne

Aral, the Lost Sea

Snatcher (voice)

The Boxtrolls

Lawrence Konrad

A Birder's Guide to Everything

The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough

Simon Wiesenthal

Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story

Dr. Ganderbai

Poison

Narrator

Liberation

Self

Muse of Fire

Ivanov

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

Damian

Self/less

Trevor Slattery / The Mandarin

Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King

Robin Smythe

Robot Overlords

Albert

War Story

Self (archive footage)

And the Oscar Goes To...

Thidias

Antony and Cleopatra

Narrator

Unlikely Heroes

Regent Miklos Horthy

Walking with the Enemy

Nun

Exodus: Gods and Kings

King Albrecht

William Tell

Rev. Templeton

Photographing Fairies

Narrator

Journey to Mecca

Bagheera (voice)

The Jungle Book

Darwan

Learning to Drive

Cunda

O Quinto Macaco

Silas Lamb

Stonehearst Asylum

Self

Robin Williams: Laugh Until You Cry

Papa Rudy

The Walk

Jack Warner

Life

Julian Messenger

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Narrator

Peace Is Every Step

Deep Water

Geran

Collide

Drago (Voice)

Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse

Self

Richard Attenborough: A Life in Film

Self

Nos Bastidores de Hollywood

Self

The Making of ‘Sneakers’

Magistrate Porfiry

Crime and Punishment

Self

Mais Bastidores de Hollywood

Narrator (voice)

Unity

Narrator

Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny

Imdad Khan / The Dealer / Dr. Ganderbai (archive footage)

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More

Self (archive footage)

Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC

Ibrahim Arif

The Thursday Murder Club

Storyteller (voice)

Knight of Cups

L'amore necessario

Self

The Making of Sexy Beast

Pericles

The War That Never Ends

High Priest Caiaphas (voice)

The King of Kings

Governatore

Una vita scellerata

The General

An Ordinary Man

The Caller (voice)

Of Dogs and Men

President Karzai

War Machine

Woodruff

The Ottoman Lieutenant

Naseem

Hard Labour

Cooper

Night Hunter

King Herod

Mary

Charlie

Security

Ethan Levin

The Red Sea Diving Resort

Pasha

Backstabbing for Beginners

Self

Spielberg

Henderson

Intrigo: Death of an Author

Adolf Eichmann

Operation Finale

Adereth

Spider in the Web

Dalí

Dalíland

Father Capulet (voice)

Romeo.Juliet

Self

Who Killed British Cinema?

Self

Falls the Shadow: The Life and Times of Athol Fugard

Frank Ford

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Self

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Self

Inside The Operation

Al-Jazari / Librarian

1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets

Je ne vous ai jamais oublié : la vie et l'héritage de Simon Wiesenthal

Malcolm

Locked Down

The Way of the Wind

Narrator (voice)

The Medicine Buddha

Self

Mr. Attenborough and Mr. Gandhi

The Life and Faith of CS Lewis

Self

The Road to Damascus: The Reinvention of Bugsy Siegel

Trevor Slattery

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Self

Michael Caine: Breaking the Mold

Narrator (voice)

Rabbit Ears - The Tiger and the Brahmin

Narrator (voice)

Rabbit Ears - Moses the Lawgiver

Narrator

Helena: First Pilgrim to the Holy Land

The Making of Slipstream

Self

Schindler's List: 25 Years Later

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Known Credits

168

Gender

Male

Birthday

1943-12-31

Place of Birth

Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK

Also Known As

Sir Ben Kingsley