36 Facts About Sir Ben Kingsley

Sir Ben Kingsley was born on Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943 and is an English actor.

Sir Ben Kingsley has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Sir Ben Kingsley's starring roles included productions of As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

In film, Sir Ben Kingsley is known for his starring role as Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, for which he subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Actor and BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Sir Ben Kingsley appeared as Itzhak Stern in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, receiving a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

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Sir Ben Kingsley played the character of Trevor Slattery in Iron Man 3, a role he would reprise in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Sir Ben Kingsley voiced the antagonistic Archibald Snatcher in The Boxtrolls, and Bagheera in the live-action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book.

Sir Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji on 31 December 1943, in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire.

Sir Ben Kingsley's mother, Anna Lyna Mary, was an English actress and model; she was born out of wedlock, and "was loath to speak of her background".

Sir Ben Kingsley's father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was born in the East Africa Protectorate to a family from the Indian city of Jamnagar, of Khoja Gujarati descent.

Sir Ben Kingsley's paternal grandfather, Harji Bhanji, was a successful spice trader who had moved from India to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, where Sir Ben Kingsley's father lived until moving to the United Kingdom at the age of 14.

Sir Ben Kingsley declined James' offer, and instead chose to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 after an audition before Trevor Nunn.

Sir Ben Kingsley starred in the role of Willy Loman in a 1982 Sydney production of Death of a Salesman opposite Mel Gibson.

Sir Ben Kingsley began his transition to film roles early on, starting with Fear Is the Key in 1972.

Sir Ben Kingsley continued to play bit parts in both film and television, including a role as Ron Jenkins on the soap opera Coronation Street from 1966 to 1967 and regular appearances as a defence counsel in the long-running British legal programme Crown Court.

The film was a critical and financial success, and Sir Ben Kingsley won the Academy Award for Best Actor, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his performance.

Sir Ben Kingsley played the main character of Basil Pascali in Pascali's Island, and went on to portray Dr John Watson alongside Michael Caine's Sherlock Holmes in Without a Clue that year.

Sir Ben Kingsley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the organized crime figure Meyer Lansky in Bugsy.

In Steven Spielberg's historical drama film Schindler's List, Sir Ben Kingsley portrayed the Holocaust survivor Itzhak Stern alongside Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler.

The film was a critical and commercial success, and Sir Ben Kingsley received a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Sir Ben Kingsley starred alongside Sigourney Weaver in Death and the Maiden, having previously acted with her in Dave.

Sir Ben Kingsley earned another Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani in House of Sand and Fog, and played a supporting role as Benjamin O'Ryan in Suspect Zero.

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

The episode, titled "Luxury Lounge", features Sir Ben Kingsley playing himself; in the episode, Chris and Little Carmine pitch the role of a mob boss in the film Cleaver to Sir Ben Kingsley, which he turns down.

In 2007, Sir Ben Kingsley appeared as a Polish American mobster in the Mafia comedy You Kill Me, and a hitman in War, Inc.

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That same year, Sir Ben Kingsley made his Bollywood debut in the thriller Teen Patti.

Sir Ben Kingsley signed on to the sci-fi romance feature Broken Dream.

In 2013, Sir Ben Kingsley appeared as the villain Trevor Slattery in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 3, and as the hero Mazer Rackham in Ender's Game.

In 2015, Sir Ben Kingsley portrayed a Sikh driving instructor in the film Learning to Drive.

Sir Ben Kingsley voiced Bagheera in the live-action adaptation of Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, a remake of the original 1967 film.

Sir Ben Kingsley recorded Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi in book-on-tape format.

Sir Ben Kingsley reprised his role as Trevor Slattery in the film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Sir Ben Kingsley divorced Alexandra Christmann in 2005, having been "deeply, deeply shocked" after pictures of her kissing another man surfaced on the internet.

On 3 September 2007, Sir Ben Kingsley married Brazilian actress Daniela Lavender at Eynsham Hall in North Leigh, Oxfordshire.

In 1984, Sir Ben Kingsley won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Nonmusical Recording for The Words of Gandhi, received an honorary degree from the University of Salford, and was awarded the Indian civilian honour Padma Shri.

Sir Ben Kingsley was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2002 New Year Honours for services to the British film industry.