Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE (born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943) is an Academy Award-winning British actor.

Kingsley was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and grew up in Pendlebury, Salford, where he studied at University of Salford, then in Lancashire where he studied at Pendleton College, which is now home to the Ben Kingsley Theatre. His father, Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor of Indian (Gujarati Muslim) descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary, was a fashion model and actress who was half Jewish . He began his acting career on the stage at Manchester Grammar School alongside Robert Powell, but made a transition to film roles early on. Despite this focus on film, he continued to act on the stage, playing Mosca in Peter Hall's 1977 production of Ben Jonson's Volpone for the Royal National Theatre. It was at this point that he changed his name, fearing a foreign name would hamper his career.

Film career

Kingsley's first film role was a supporting turn in Fear Is the Key (1972). Kingsley continued starring in bit roles in both film and television, including a bit part on the soap opera Coronation Street and regular appearances as a defence counsel in the long-running British legal show, Crown Court. He found fame only years later, starring as Mahatma Gandhi in the Academy Award-winning film Gandhi in 1982, his best-known role to date. Kingsley was critically acclaimed and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role.

Kingsley has avoided typecasting and has been cast in a variety of roles. His credits include the films Turtle Diary, Maurice, Pascali's Island, Without a Clue (as Dr. Watson opposite Michael Caine's Sherlock Holmes), Suspect Zero, Bugsy (Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Sneakers, Dave, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Schindler's List, Silas Marner, Death and the Maiden, Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, Sexy Beast (for which he received another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor) and House of Sand and Fog (Oscar nomination for Best Actor). He has 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 acting for the video game Ceremony of Innocence.

In July 2006, he received an Emmy nomination for his performance in the TV movie Mrs. Harris (film), in which he played famed cardiologist Herman Tarnower who was murdered by his jilted lover, Jean Harris.

Sometime in 2007, Ben Kingsley will appear as a Polish American mobster in his next film, the Mafia comedy You Kill Me, as wellla as a Middle East oil minister to be assassinated in War, Inc..

Honours

Kingsley was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000.

He was knighted in the 2001 New Years Honours list. On promotional material for the 2006 film Lucky Number Slevin, Kingsley was referred to as "Sir Ben Kingsley". At first, the actor was singled out for some criticism as such titles are nowadays generally omitted from professional credits. It was claimed that the inclusion of "Sir" was a mistake by a studio executive.

Private life

Kingsley has four children: Thomas and Jasmine Bhanji (with actress Angela Morant) and Edmund and Ferdinand Kingsley, both of whom are actors (with theatrical director Alison Sutcliffe). He recently divorced German-born Alexandra Christmann and lives in Spelsbury, England.

Selected filmography