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Quick Facts
- NAME: Sir Ben Kingsley
- OCCUPATION: Actor
- BIRTH DATE: December 31, 1943 (Age: 68)
- EDUCATION: University of Salford
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Snainton, England
- Originally: Krishna Bhanji
- ZODIAC SIGN: Capricorn
Best Known For
English actor Ben Kingsley is best known for his title role in the Academy Award-winning film Gandhi in 1982.
Sir Ben Kingsley. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 12:10, May 24, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267
Sir Ben Kingsley [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267, May 24
"Sir Ben Kingsley." 2012. Biography.com 24 May 2012, 12:10 http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267
'Sir Ben Kingsley', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267 [accessed May 24, 2012]
"Sir Ben Kingsley," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267 (accessed May 24, 2012).
Sir Ben Kingsley [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 May 24]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267.
Sir Ben Kingsley, http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267 (last visited May 24, 2012).
Sir Ben Kingsley, http://www.biography.com/people/ben-kingsley-9365267 (last visited May 24, 2012).
Synopsis
English actor Ben Kingsley was the son of a Kenyan-born physician of Indian extraction and an English-born fashion model. Kingsley began acting as a teenager. He joined the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967. His first role on the big screen was in Fear is the Key in 1972. His film career soared to unforeseen heights in 1981 with his first starring role, in the title role in Gandhi.
Profile
Actor. Born Krishna Bhanji, on December 31, 1943 in Snaiton, North Yorkshire, England. Raised in Salford, England, as the son of a Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, a Kenyan-born physician of Indian extraction and Anna Lyna Mary Bhanji, an English-born fashion model, Kingsley began acting as a teenager. He took the name Ben as a tribute to his father, who had been called Ben in college. He joined the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 and soon began performing in lead roles, including Demetrius in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a role which he reprised for a tour of U.S. cities in 1971, and the title role in Hamlet in 1975. Kingsley first appeared on the big screen in the Alistair MacLean thriller Fear is the Key (1972), and made his television debut that same year in the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) series The Love School.
From 1975 to 1977, Kingsley worked with the National Theatre; he subsequently returned to the RSC, where he originated the role of Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby. When the production traveled to Broadway, Kingsley was unable to reprise the role due to film commitments. His film career soared to unforeseen heights in 1981 with his first starring role, in the title role in Richard Attenborough's acclaimed biopic Gandhi. Appearing in only his second film, Kingsley won numerous accolades for his performance, including an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Kingsley appeared in seven more European films, notably a 1983 adaptation of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, costarring Jeremy Irons, and James Ivory's Maurice (1987), and made his Broadway debut in the one-man show Edmund Kean (1984), before making his U.S. film debut in Without a Clue (1988), playing the capable Dr. Watson to Michael Caine's bumbling Sherlock Holmes. The film was an unusually comic choice for Kingsley, and it met with mixed reviews. In 1989, he again ventured into historical biopic territory, earning critical praise for his performance in the title role of the HBO feature Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, as the famed Holocaust survivor who steadfastly sought vengeance against the Nazis.
Kingsley earned his second Academy Award nomination for his sharp-edged supporting turn as Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky in the Warren Beatty vehicle Bugsy (1991). After a villainous performance in the thriller Sneakers (1992), costarring Robert Redford, he essayed a trio of more benevolent roles, including a patient coach to a chess prodigy in Searching for Bobby Fischer, a U.S. vice
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Oscar-Winning Portrayals
View groupTruth is often more fascinating than fiction. Since the beginning of movies, actors have been portraying figures from history and bringing them to life on screen. Mastering the well-known mannerisms and characteristics of real world figures can be more challenging than portraying a fictional character. Enormous amounts of research and drastic physical transformations are not uncommon for actors wanting to properly inhabit their role on film. Whether playing a scheming Queen, a country singer, a temperamental boxer, or a pioneering writer, those performers who can accurately play the part often find Oscar gold as their reward. Here are the Academy Award-winning actors, and the larger-than-life people they portrayed.
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