Acting icon
Oscar winner Ben Kingsley turns 80
British actor Ben Kingsley turns 80. Photo
© Jörg Carstensen/dpa
Ben Kingsley’s career as an actor took him to Hollywood. The Beatles once suggested a career as a pop star to the British Oscar winner.
Whether in independent films or big Hollywood cinema – Ben Kingsley has the gift of empathizing with a wide variety of characters and bringing them convincingly to the screen. He impressed as India’s freedom icon in “Gandhi”, as a Jewish accountant in “Schindler’s List” or as a choleric gangster in “Sexy Beast”. The renowned British actor with the distinctive voice will turn 80 on December 31st.
It’s been almost exactly 40 years since Kingsley won the Oscar for Best Actor for “Gandhi.” It was only the second film role ever for the Brit, who was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in Yorkshire. The role brought the international breakthrough to the son of a British woman with Russian roots and an Indian man born in Zanzibar. “A beautiful film,” said Kingsley happily in a career review for GQ magazine in 2019. “That was the golden door into the film business for me.”
With the name change came success
But it was a long journey to get there, on which he received little support, even though he was “the showman of the family,” as Kingsley told the Daily Mail. “I tried to make them laugh. But they weren’t a particularly happy bunch, so it wasn’t easy.” The fact that he was often warned as a child to be quiet only spurred him on even more. “If you try to suppress a talent, then it will fight even harder to free itself and be heard,” the mime is sure.
He appeared in school plays and joined amateur theater while studying in Manchester. In his early 20s, he made acting his career and changed his name. “Krishna Bhanji was such a strange name,” he told Radio Times. “It’s more invented than the name I chose.” The move had another effect. “As soon as I changed my name, I got the jobs.”
When he played a busker in Beatles manager Brian Epstein’s play “A Smashing Day” while singing his own songs, another opportunity in show business opened up. Because there were John Lennon and Ringo Starr in the audience, who were thrilled. They insisted on introducing Kingsley to their music publisher, Dick James. “He said he could make me a singer as big as the Beatles,” Kingsley recalled in the Daily Mail. “It was tempting, but I was scared.” On the same day he got an offer from a theater. “I agreed and never regretted it.”
In 1967 he joined the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and from then on devoted himself intensively to the stage in London’s West End and elsewhere. He also took on roles on television. He starred in the British soap opera “Coronation Street”, which is still being continued today, the historical series “The Love School” and the court show “Crown Court”. He got his first film role in 1972 in the action thriller “Fear is the Key”, which, however, brought him little attention.
Richard Attenborough convinced him to play “Gandhi”.
It wasn’t until ten years later that Ben Kingsley returned to the cinema and – despite initial doubts – took on the role that changed everything for him. Director Richard Attenborough invited him to present the project. “By coincidence, the week he invited me to his house, I was reading an illustrated biography of Mahatma Gandhi,” Kingsley said. He watched five hours of footage of the real Gandhi and decided “it was impossible.” But Attenborough finally convinced him and Kingsley established himself as an outstanding character actor.
He never allowed himself to be tied down to a specific type. After receiving acclaim as Itzhak Stern in “Schindler’s List,” he played Nazi criminal and Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann in 2018’s “Operation Finale.” Kingsley’s list of films and roles is long and varied, including dramas and thrillers (“Death and the Maiden”, “Shutter Island”), comedies (“The Love Guru”, “Night at the Museum”) and Hollywood blockbusters ( “Prince Of Persia”, “Iron Man 3”). With his warm voice he can be heard as the narrator in some films. He also recorded numerous audio books.
“Sexy Beast” brought him cult status
He achieved cult status as Don Logan in “Sexy Beast” (2000). In the darkly humorous thriller, the sociopathic gangster visits his ex-accomplice Gary (Ray Winstone) to bring him out of retirement for a bank robbery. “I was thought to be bipolar because people couldn’t believe that someone sane could play Mahatma Gandhi and Don Logan,” Kingsley said in the GQ interview. After “Bugsy” (1992), “Sexy Beast” earned him another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was again nominated for best actor for “House of Sand and Fog” (2003).
Ben Kingsley largely keeps his private life out of the public eye. He is reportedly married for the fourth time and has four children. He is committed to charitable causes and supports various charitable organizations. In 2002, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him. “My work doesn’t compensate for anything,” Sir Ben, as he has since called himself, told The Independent newspaper. “It has become my craft and I love it.”