Ben Kingsley
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1943-12-31 (81 years old)
Place of Birth
Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK
Ben Kingsley
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).
Acting
Mary
as King Herod
(2026)
Young Washington
as Robert Dinwiddie
(2026)
(2025)
William Tell
as King Albrecht
(2025)
The Thursday Murder Club
as Ibrahim
(2025)
The King of Kings
as High Priest Caiaphas (voice)
(2025)
Desert Warrior
as Emperor Kisra
(2024)
The Killer's Game
as Zvi Rabinowitz
(2024)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More
as Imdad Khan / The Dealer / Dr. Ganderbai (archive footage)
(2023)
Jules
as Milton Robinson
(2023)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
as Imdad Khan / Croupier
(2023)
Poison
as Dr. Ganderbai
(2022)
Dalíland
as Dalí
(2022)
(2021)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
as Trevor Slattery
(2021)
Locked Down
as Malcolm
(2019)
Night Hunter
as Cooper
(2019)
Spider in the Web
as Adereth
(2019)
The Red Sea Diving Resort
as Ethan Levin
(2019)
The Medicine Buddha
as Narrator (voice)
(2018)
Backstabbing for Beginners
as Pasha
(2018)
Operation Finale
as Adolf Eichmann
(2018)
(2018)
An Oral History of: Schindler's List
as Self (archive footage)
(2018)
Intrigo: Death of an Author
as Henderson
(2018)
Who Killed British Cinema?
as Self
(2018)
Inside the Operation
as Self
(2018)
(2017)
Security
as Charlie
(2017)
War Machine
as President Karzai
(2017)
The Ottoman Lieutenant
as Woodruff
(2017)
Spielberg
as Self
(2017)
An Ordinary Man
as The General
(2016)
The Jungle Book
as Bagheera (voice)
(2016)
Collide
as Geran
(2016)
Of Dogs and Men
as The Caller (voice)
(2015)
Self/less
as Damian
(2015)
The Walk
as Papa Rudy
(2015)
Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse
as Drago (Voice)
(2015)
Unity
as Narrator (voice)
(2015)
Life
as Jack Warner
(2015)
Knight of Cups
as Storyteller (voice)
(2015)
Knights of Classic Drama at the BBC
as Self (archive footage)
(2014)
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
as Merenkahre
(2014)
Exodus: Gods and Kings
as Nun
(2014)
Stonehearst Asylum
as Silas Lamb
(2014)
The Boxtrolls
as Snatcher (voice)
(2014)
Robot Overlords
as Robin Smythe
(2014)
Learning to Drive
as Darwan
(2014)
Walking with the Enemy
as Regent Miklos Horthy
(2014)
Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King
as Trevor Slattery / The Mandarin
(2014)
War Story
as Albert
(2014)
(2013)
Iron Man 3
as Trevor Slattery
(2013)
Ender's Game
as Mazer Rackham
(2013)
The Physician
as Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
(2013)
A Birder's Guide to Everything
as Lawrence Konrad
(2013)
A Common Man
as The Man
(2013)
Muse of Fire
as Self
(2012)
The Dictator
as Tamir
(2012)
It Is No Dream: The Life Of Theodor Herzl
as Narrator
(2012)
(2012)
(2012)
(2012)
(2012)
A Therapy
as Therapist
(2012)
(2011)
Hugo
as Georges Méliès
(2011)
The Desert of Forbidden Art
as Voice
(2010)
Shutter Island
as Dr. Cawley
(2010)
(2010)
Teen Patti
as Perci Trachtenberg
(2010)
1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets
as Al-Jazari / Librarian
(2010)
(2010)
Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny
as Narrator
(2010)
(2009)
Journey to Mecca
as Narrator
(2008)
TransSiberian
as Grinko
(2008)
The Love Guru
as Guru Tugginmypuddha
(2008)
War, Inc.
as Walken / The Viceroy
(2008)
Elegy
as David Kepesh
(2008)
Fifty Dead Men Walking
as Fergus
(2008)
The Wackness
as Dr. Squires
(2007)
The Last Legion
as Ambrosinus
(2007)
You Kill Me
as Frank Falenczyk
(2007)
The Ten Commandments
as Narrator (voice)
(2007)
(2006)
Lucky Number Slevin
as The Rabbi
(2006)
Mrs. Harris
as Herman Tarnower
(2006)
(2006)
(2006)
(2006)
(2006)
Mais Bastidores de Hollywood
as Self
(2005)
Oliver Twist
as Fagin
(2005)
A Sound of Thunder
as Charles Hatton
(2005)
BloodRayne
as Kagan
(2005)
Nos Bastidores de Hollywood
as Self
(2005)
Peace Is Every Step
as Narrator
(2004)
Suspect Zero
as Benjamin O'Ryan
(2004)
Thunderbirds
as The Hood
(2004)
(2004)
(2003)
House of Sand and Fog
as Behrani
(2003)
(2003)
Unlikely Heroes
as Narrator
(2003)
The Making of ‘Sneakers’
as Self
(2003)
Helena: First Pilgrim to the Holy Land
as Narrator
(2002)
Tuck Everlasting
as Man in the Yellow Suit
(2002)
Spooky House
as The Great Zamboni
(2001)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
as Specialist (voice)
(2001)
The Triumph of Love
as Hermocrates
(2001)
Islam: Empire of Faith
as Self - Narrator
(2001)
The Making of Sexy Beast
as Self
(2000)
Rules of Engagement
as Ambassador Mourain
(2000)
What Planet Are You From?
as Graydon
(2000)
Sexy Beast
as Don Logan
(1999)
Alice in Wonderland
as Major Caterpillar
(1999)
The Confession
as Harry Fertig
(1999)
Parting Shots
as Renzo Locatelli
(1999)
A Force More Powerful
as Narator
(1998)
The Tale of Sweeney Todd
as Sweeney Todd
(1998)
Crime and Punishment
as Magistrate Porfiry
(1997)
Photographing Fairies
as Rev. Templeton
(1997)
The Assignment
as Amos
(1997)
Weapons of Mass Distraction
as Julian Messenger
(1996)
Twelfth Night
as Feste
(1996)
Moïse
as Moses
(1995)
Species
as Xavier Fitch
(1995)
Joseph
as Potifar
(1995)
Moses
as Moses
(1994)
Death and the Maiden
as Dr. Roberto Miranda
(1994)
(1994)
Liberation
as Narrator
(1993)
Schindler's List
as Itzhak Stern
(1993)
Dave
as Vice-President Nance
(1993)
Searching for Bobby Fischer
as Bruce Pandolfini
(1992)
Sneakers
as Cosmo
(1992)
Freddie as F.R.O.7.
as Freddie (voice)
(1991)
Bugsy
as Meyer Lansky
(1991)
The War That Never Ends
as Pericles
(1991)
(1991)
Rabbit Ears - The Tiger and the Brahmin
as Narrator (voice)
(1991)
Rabbit Ears - Moses the Lawgiver
as Narrator (voice)
(1990)
The Fifth Monkey
as Cunda
(1990)
The Children
as Martin Boyne
(1990)
Romeo.Juliet
as Father Capulet (voice)
(1990)
Cellini: A Violent Life
as Governor
(1990)
Lenin: The Train
as Lenin
(1989)
Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story
as Simon Wiesenthal
(1989)
Slipstream
as Avatar
(1989)
(1988)
Without a Clue
as Dr. John Watson
(1988)
Testimony
as Dmitri Shostakovich
(1988)
Pascali's Island
as Basil Pascali
(1987)
Maurice
as Lasker-Jones
(1985)
Silas Marner
as Silas Marner
(1985)
Turtle Diary
as William Snow
(1985)
To Be Hamlet
as Self
(1985)
Harem
as Selim
(1984)
Camille
as Duval
(1983)
Betrayal
as Robert
(1983)
Schindler
as Self - Narrator (2019) (voice)
(1983)
(1982)
Gandhi
as Mahatma Gandhi
(1982)
The Merry Wives of Windsor
as Frank Ford
(1979)
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
as Ivanov
(1975)
Antony and Cleopatra
as Thidias
(1973)
Hard Labour
as Naseem
(1972)
Fear Is the Key
as Royale
Crew
(2022)
Dalíland
Executive Producer