Ben Kingsley

Born: 1943-12-31 in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK

Known For: Acting

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).

Filmography

2027

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 as (voice)

2026

Deep Water as Rich
Wonder Man as Trevor Slattery
Young Washington as Robert Dinwiddie
Desert Warrior as Emperor Kisra II
The Old Stories: Moses as Moses

2025

The Thursday Murder Club as Ibrahim
William Tell as King Albrecht
The King of Kings as High Priest Caiaphas (voice)

2024

The Killer's Game as Zvi Rabinowitz
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More as Imdad Khan / The Dealer / Dr. Ganderbai (archive footage)

2023

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar as Imdad Khan / Croupier
Poison as Dr. Ganderbai
Jules as Milton Robinson

2022

Dalíland as Dalí
Robin Williams: Laugh Until You Cry as Self

2021

Marvel Studios Assembled as Self
Marvel Studios Legends as Trevor Slattery / The Mandarin (archive footage)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings as Trevor Slattery
Locked Down as Malcolm

2019

Night Hunter as Cooper
Perpetual Grace LTD as Pastor Byron 'Pa' Brown
The Red Sea Diving Resort as Ethan Levin
Spider in the Web as Adereth
The Medicine Buddha as Narrator (voice)

2018

Operation Finale as Adolf Eichmann
Watership Down as General Woundwort (voice)
All or Nothing: Manchester City as Narrator (voice)
Backstabbing for Beginners as Pasha
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché as Self
Intrigo: Death of an Author as Henderson
An Oral History of: Schindler's List as Self (archive footage)
Who Killed British Cinema? as Self
Inside the Operation as Self

2017

War Machine as President Karzai
Security as Charlie
The Ottoman Lieutenant as Woodruff
Spielberg as Self
An Ordinary Man as The General

2016

The Jungle Book as Bagheera (voice)
Collide as Geran
Of Dogs and Men as The Caller (voice)

2015

Lip Sync Battle as Self
Self/less as Damian
The Walk as Papa Rudy
Tut as Ay
Knight of Cups as Storyteller (voice)
Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse as Drago (Voice)
Robot Overlords as Robin Smythe
Unity as Narrator (voice)
Life as Jack Warner
Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC as Self (archive footage)

2014

Late Night with Seth Meyers as Self - Guest
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb as Merenkahre
Exodus: Gods and Kings as Nun
The Boxtrolls as Snatcher (voice)
Stonehearst Asylum as Silas Lamb
Garfunkel and Oates as Ben Kingsley
Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King as Trevor Slattery / The Mandarin
Der Medicus as Ibn Sina
Learning to Drive as Darwan
Walking with the Enemy as Regent Miklos Horthy
Richard Attenborough: A Life in Film as Self
War Story as Albert

2013

Iron Man 3 as Trevor Slattery
Ender's Game as Mazer Rackham
The Physician as Ibn Sina
Muse of Fire as Self
A Birder's Guide to Everything as Lawrence Konrad
A Common Man as The Man

2012

The Dictator as Tamir
The Cinemagician, Georges Méliès as Self
Falls the Shadow: The Life and Times of Athol Fugard as Self
Shoot the Moon: The Making of 'Hugo' as Self
The Mechanical Man at the Heart of 'Hugo' as Self
Sacha Baron Cohen: Role of a Lifetime as Self
It Is No Dream: The Life Of Theodor Herzl as Narrator

2011

Hugo as Georges Méliès
The Desert of Forbidden Art as Voice

2010

Shutter Island as Dr. Cawley
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as Nizam
Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny as Narrator
1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets as Al-Jazari / Librarian
Aral, the Lost Sea
Teen Patti as Perci Trachtenberg

2009

Journey to Mecca as Narrator

2008

The Love Guru as Guru Tugginmypuddha
Elegy as David Kepesh
TransSiberian as Grinko
War, Inc. as Walken / The Viceroy
Fifty Dead Men Walking as Fergus
The Wackness as Dr. Squires

2002

Tuck Everlasting as Man in the Yellow Suit
Spooky House as The Great Zamboni

2001

A.I. Artificial Intelligence as Specialist (voice)
Sexy Beast as Don Logan
Anne Frank: The Whole Story as Otto Frank
The Triumph of Love as Hermocrates
The Making of Sexy Beast as Self
Islam: Empire of Faith as Narrator
Ben Kingsley Talks About "Gandhi" as Self - Interviewee
Islam: Empire of Faith as Self - Narrator

2000

Rules of Engagement as Ambassador Mourain
What Planet Are You From? as Graydon

1999

The Sopranos as Ben Kingsley
Rove as Self
Alice in Wonderland as Major Caterpillar
CNN Millennium as Narrator
The Confession as Harry Fertig
Parting Shots as Renzo Locatelli
A Force More Powerful as Narator

1998

The Tale of Sweeney Todd as Sweeney Todd
Religions of the World as Narrator
Crime and Punishment as Magistrate Porfiry

1997

HARDtalk
The Assignment as Amos
Weapons of Mass Distraction as Julian Messenger
Photographing Fairies as Rev. Templeton

1996

TFI Friday
Moses as Moses
Twelfth Night as Feste

1995

Species as Xavier Fitch
Joseph as Potiphar
Joseph as Potiphar

1994

Death and the Maiden as Dr. Roberto Miranda
Inside the Actors Studio as Self
Liberation as Narrator (voice)
Michael Caine: Breaking the Mold as Self

1993

Schindler's List as Itzhak Stern
Dave as Vice-President Nance
Searching for Bobby Fischer as Bruce Pandolfini
The King and I: Recording a Hollywood Dream as Self / The King (voice)

1992

Sneakers as Cosmo
Freddie As F.R.O.7. as Freddie (voice)

1991

Bugsy as Meyer Lansky
The War That Never Ends as Pericles
Necessary Love
Rabbit Ears - Moses the Lawgiver as Narrator (voice)
Rabbit Ears - The Tiger and the Brahmin as Narrator (voice)

1990

Romeo.Juliet as Father Capulet (voice)
Cellini: A Violent Life as Governor
The Fifth Monkey as Cunda
The Children as Martin Boyne

1989

Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story as Simon Wiesenthal
The Making of Slipstream
Slipstream as Avatar

1988

The Secret of the Sahara as Sholomon
Without a Clue as Dr. John Watson
Lenin... The Train as Wladimir Iljitsch Lenin
Pascali's Island as Basil Pascali
Lenin: The Train as Lenin
Testimony as Dmitri Shostakovich

1987

Dispatches
Seitenblicke as Self
Maurice as Lasker-Jones

1985

Turtle Diary as William Snow
Silas Marner as Silas Marner
To Be Hamlet as Self
Harem as Selim

1984

Goldene Kamera as Self
Oxbridge Blues as Geoff Craven
Playing Shakespeare
Camille as Duval

1983

Mr. Attenborough and Mr. Gandhi as Self
Betrayal as Robert

1982

Gandhi as Mahatma Gandhi
The Merry Wives of Windsor as Frank Ford

1981

Wetten, dass..? as Self
Entertainment Tonight as Self

1979

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour as Ivanov

1978

The BBC Television Shakespeare as Frank Ford
Thank You, Comrades as Roberto Cibrario

1977

The Velvet Glove as Chakravarti

1976

Dickens of London as Dr. John Elliotson

1975

The Love School as Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Antony and Cleopatra as Thidias

1974

Playhouse as Ivanov

1973

Wessex Tales as Lord Uplandtowers
Hard Labour as Naseem

1972

Crown Court as Jeremy Leigh
Pebble Mill at One
The Adventurer as Pierre
Fear Is the Key as Royale

1971

Film '72 as Self

1963

World in Action as Re-enactment

1953

The Oscars as Self - Presenter

1951

Hallmark Hall of Fame as Duval

1948

Bambi as Self

1944

Golden Globe Awards as Self - Nominee