Ben Kingsley

The British actor is actually called Krishna Bhanji, a native of Scarborough, Yorkshire, where he first saw the light of day on December 31, 1943. His father was an Indian doctor who came from the Gujarat region, the same where Ghandi was born. His mother, an English model and actress of Jewish religion, instilled in him his artistic vocation. He was a good student from a very young age, when he studied at Pendleton College, today converted into a theater that bears his name. When he began acting on stage, he decided to adopt a stage name, Ben Kingsley, inspired by the nickname of his grandfather, a spice merchant who was called ‘Clove King’. He debuted on the London scene in 1966 with the musical ‘A Smashing Day’, where he played guitar, which led to him being offered a substantial record deal.

Although they constantly recruited him for various British television series, Kingsley was not interested in cinema, which is why he did not set foot on a set for a long time. He made an exception, in 1972, when he played a prominent role in Fear Is the Key , correct thriller by unknown Michael Tuchner . The experience did not leave him very convinced, since he would not interpret any film again for a decade.

One day, the actor and filmmaker Richard Attenborough contacted him with an offer that no actor of Indian origin would have declined, to play the protagonist of Gandhi ., in a biography about the famous champion of non-violence. Kingsley took the character so seriously that he slimmed down terribly, until he resembled the real Ghandi tremendously. So much so that several of the Indian extras, gathered during the filming, who barely knew the cinema, came to take the actor for Gandhi’s ghost. That year, all the commentators predicted what finally happened, that the actor deservedly won the Oscar for best actor, despite being an absolute unknown in the world of celluloid. “If I knew that I was going to win, I would not have come dressed as a waiter,” he joked when he went out to collect the statuette.

Since the Oscar came, film offers rained down on Ben Kingsley, who nevertheless chose them with a dropper. He opted for projects of enormous interest, such as The Risk of Betrayal , adaptation of a work by Harold Pinter , with Jeremy Irons , the drama The Turtle Diary , also based on a script by Pinter, Maurice , adaptation of a novel by EM Forster directed by the American James Ivory ,  Pascali’s Island , an emotional film by his compatriot James Dearden , Bugsy , where he played the role of the Machiavellian gangster Meyer Lansky,Death and the Maiden , Polansky’s disturbing dramatic thriller and above all, In Search of Bobby Fisher , in which he made a memorable composition of a real character, chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini.

Especially heartfelt is his portrayal of Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern in Schindler’s List , Steven Spielberg ‘s chilling reconstruction of the Holocaust . “In an ideal world, me and the director would be the same person. You could not see the line of separation, just as on the beach you cannot distinguish the line of the horizon that separates the sky from the sea. That is what has happened with Steven Spielberg and I, who moved as if we were a single creature. That year she received an Oscar nomination, which ultimately did not materialize. He has opted for the statuette other times, for his work in the aforementioned Bugsy , Sexy Beast and House of Sand and Fog .

Divorced three times and father of four, Kingsley can afford to star in half-baked movies, or even infamous by-products, like What Planet Are You From? , The fury of the wind , Species: deadly species , The sound of thunder and especially the chilling Bloodrayne , without losing one iota of the enormous prestige of him. On many occasions he has shot light entertainment, without dropping his rings, such as Without a Clue , Sneakers (The Snoopers) , Dave, President for a Day , Rules of Engagement , The Slevin Affair or The Last Legion. The Queen of England honored him with the title of sir in 2001.