Krishna Pandit Bhanji was born on the 31st December 1943, in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, but is best known to the world under his stage name Ben Kingsley, and is an Oscar-winning actor, best known for his roles in “Gandhi” (1982), “Bugsy”, “Schindler’s List”, “Sexy Beast” and “House of Sand and Fog”, among many others. Kingsley has won a Grammy, BAFTA, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and most importantly an Oscar, also received three additional Oscar nominations. He has been an active member of the entertainment industry since 1966.
Have you ever wondered how rich Ben Kingsley is, as of late 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Ben Kingsley’s net worth is as high as $70 million, an amount earned through his successful career as an actor. In addition to being extremely popular on screen, he has also worked in the theatre which has added to his wealth.
Ben Kingsley Net Worth $70 Million
Krishna Bhanji was born to a Kenyan father Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, a doctor, and English mother Anna Lyna Mary, an actress and model. He grew up near Manchester, and went to Manchester Grammar School, then Pendleton College before studying at the University of Salford. At this point, Bhanji decided to change his name to Ben Kingsley, to have a better chance of landing roles in theatre and on television.
He started working in theatre in 1966, and the same year made his television debut in the TV series “Pardon the Expression”, and then in “Orlando” (1966) and “Coronation Street” (1966-1967), which helped him build his career, and also establish his net worth. Kingsley made a break from TV to play on stage, so he made his London West End theatre debut, and although had an offer to pursue a career in the music industry, so remained working on the stage for the next 15 years.
In the meantime, Kingsley did appear in a couple of TV movies, such as “Fear Is the Key” (1972), and “Antony and Cleopatra” (1974), but his most distinguished role came in 1982, when director Sir Richard Attenborough selected him to play the title role in “Gandhi”, a part which changed his career for good, as the film was not only successful at the box office in many countries, and for Ben’s net worth, but also won eight Oscars including for Best Actor in Leading Role for Ben.
So Kingsley became an international sta,r and was subsequently cast in numerous blockbuster movies. During the ’80’s, Kingsley had leading roles in “Betrayal” with Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge, “Turtle Diary” (1985), “Silas Marner” (1985), “Without a Clue” (1985) with Michael Caine, “Testimony” (1988), “Lenin: The Train” (1988), and “Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story” (1989), which all helped to considerably increase his net worth. He received an Oscar nomination for portraying infamous gangster Meyer Lansky in Barry Livingston’s “Bugsy” (1991) co-starring Warren Beatty, Annette Bening and Harvey Keitel, increasing further his real as well as net worth.
Towards the end of the ’90s, Kingsley had several more parts, significantly in “The Tale of Sweeney Todd” (1997), “Crime and Punishment” (1998), and “Alice in Wonderland” (1999). In 2000, Kingsley received another Oscar nomination for playing the role of psychotic bully Don Logan in Jonathan Glazer’s “Sexy Beast”, with Ray Winstone and Ian McShane. He later played in “The Triumph of Love” (2001), before starring in Vadim Perelman’s heartbreaking drama “House of Sand and Fog” (2003) for which he received his latest Oscar nomination, playing the Iranian immigrant Behrani. His net worth was still rising.
Ben Kingsley went on to play in Polanski’s “Oliver Twist” (2005), then starred in “Lucky Number Slevin” (2006) with Josh Hartnett and Morgan Freeman.. He later filmed “Trans-Siberian” (2008) with Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer, and “Fifty Dead Men Walking” (2008).
In this decade, Kingsley has had parts in Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” (2010) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer and Mark Ruffalo, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” (2010), “Learning to Drive” (2014) with Patricia Clarkson, and Ridley Scott’s “Exodus: Gods and Kings” (2014). Most recently, he appeared in “Self/less” (2015), Robert Zemeckis’ “The Walk” (2015), and gave his voice to Bagheera in “The Jungle Book” (2016), which have also added a considerable amount to his net worth. He is currently filming “War Machine” (2017), “Backstabbing for Beginners” (2017), and “An Ordinary Man” (2017).
In his impressive career, Ben has appeared in over 100 films on the big screen, and over 50 TV productions. In addition to specific awards already mentioned, he was made a Knight Bachelor in 2002 for his service to the British film industry, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment, and has the Indian civilian honour Padma Shri since 1984.
Regarding his personal life, Ben Kingsley has married four times: to Angela Morant from 1966 to 1977, Alison Sutcliffe from 1978 to 1992, Alexandra Christmann from 2003 to 2005, and to Daniela Lavender since 2007 – they are still together, and reside in Oxfordshire. Kingsley has four children; two with Morant and two with Sutcliffe.
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Academy Award for Best Actor, Grammy Awards, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (1982), Screen Actors Guild Award
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (1991), BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (1993), Academy Award for Best Actor (2003), Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (2003)
Movies
“Gandhi” (1982), “Schindler's List” (1993), "Bugsy" (1991), "Sexy BeastH (2000), House of Sand and Fog" (2003), “Oliver Twist” (2005), “You Kill Me” (2007), “The Wackness” (2008), “Elegy” (2008), “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” (2010), “The Jungle Book” (2016),...
TV Shows
Tut, Anne Frank: The Whole Story, Jackanory, The Love School, The Adventurer, Pardon the Expression, Dickens of London, The Secret of the Sahara, BBC2 Playhouse, Seitenblicke, Watership Down, Orlando, Playing Shakespeare, 50 Films to See Before You Die, Wessex Tales, The Directors, Magician of Samar...
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Trademark
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Rich, mellifluous voice and Shakespearean bearing
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Performances which are often both very reserved and yet vocally animated
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Often portrays sinister villains or sympathetic friends of the main character
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Shaved head
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Quote
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Glue all of my films together and arrange them in a certain kind of way and you'll have the history of 20th and 21st century by SBK [Sir Ben Kingsley].
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I actually don't ever really socialize on the film-set. I'm hermit-like. I go home, get room service and I work on the lines for tomorrow, because that's my job. I can have fun other ways, other times, but for me the joy of acting is to know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.
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[on Hailee Steinfeld] She's very focused, very mature in her work, and I can see her simply going from strength to strength. She's very well-rooted in her craft. There's nothing woolly or peripheral about her.
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[on his heritage] I'm not Jewish... and though there might be some Russian-Jewish heritage way back on my mother's side, the thread is so fine there's no real evidence.
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[on actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan] It was a pleasure working with Aishwarya in The Last Legion (2007), and her fans are in for a big surprise. She is an excellent and outstanding actor. She is a shining example of beauty from India, and I'm sure we will be seeing her in more Hollywood movies real soon. (August 2006)
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[on the holocaust] It's like a big, hulking monster squatting in the middle of our history and it won't go away.
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But comedy I'd love to do as much as humanly possible.
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Being a leading man on a film set under the direction of somebody like Dickie Attenborough [Sir Richard Attenborough] is very empowering, and you have to be extremely careful how you use that power.
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As a singer, I might have fallen among thieves. I wonder if I'd still be alive by now.
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All the great writers root their characters in true human behavior.
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Hopefully, as I get older in the business, I make my choices more accurately, and I perhaps know from either the script or the first meeting that it isn't going to work.
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As an actor, there's no autonomy, unless you're prepared to risk the possibility of starving.
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[on winning the Oscar for Best Actor in Gandhi (1982)] If I knew I was going to win, I would not have gone dressed as a waiter.
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In an ideal way, in an ideal world, myself and the director are one. And as you rightly say, in an ideal world, you can't see the horizon between sky and sea. I felt that the times with Spielberg [Steven Spielberg] on Schindler's List (1993), we were moving as one creature.
Was approached for the Bollywood movie Shikhar (2005) but declined the role as he was not comfortable speaking Hindi. The role eventually went to Javed Shaikh.
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Is shown being eaten by a "Grasshopper-raptor" in an episode of The Simpsons (1989).
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According to Kingsley, one of his fondest movie memories is watching his father go hysterical while viewing Danny Kaye as a car salesman in Knock on Wood (1954). After that his father often jokingly referred to him as the "Danny Kaye of the Family".
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Kingsley considers this an extraordinary coincidence that five days before Sir Richard Attenborough called him for the lead role in Gandhi (1982), he was given a library book on Gandhi.
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Kingsley joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987.
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As of 2014, has appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Gandhi (1982), Bugsy (1991), Schindler's List (1993) and Hugo (2011). Of those, Gandhi (1982) and Schindler's List (1993) won in the category.
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Received an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus, degree ceremony on July 18, 2008.
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Was awarded the Grammy Award for "Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording" in 1985 for "The Words of Gandhi".
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He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6931 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 27, 2010. Offering their support at the event were his son Edmund Kingsley, wife Daniela Lavender, friends Bruce Willis and Jerry Bruckheimer.
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The initials of his professional name are a reversal of the initials of his birth name.
His performance as Don Logan in Sexy Beast (2000) is ranked #97 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
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Was originally cast as Ephraim in Munich (2005), but later had to withdraw from the project due to scheduling conflicts. The role went to Geoffrey Rush.
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Head of jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1998.
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Was listed as a potential nominee on both the 2005 and 2006 Razzie Award nominating ballots. He was suggested in the Worst Supporting Actor category on the 2005 ballot for his role in the film Thunderbirds (2004). And he was suggested again the next year in the Worst Supporting Actor category of the 2006 Razzie nominating ballot for his performance in the film A Sound of Thunder (2005). He failed to receive either nomination. The very next year (2007) though, he got a Worst Supporting Actor Razzie Nomination for his performance in the film BloodRayne (2005).
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Made his London stage debut in 1966 as the narrator of "A Smashing Day" produced by The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein. He wrote the music for the production as well as sang and played guitar for same. After one performance, John Lennon and Ringo Starr came backstage and told him that he should go into music and that if he didn't, "he would regret it for the rest of his life." He was subsequently offered a deal by the same publishers who handled The Beatles, but he chose to remain an actor. The next year, he was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company and his choice was made.
Ben Kingsley's paternal family was from the Indian state of Gujarat, the same state Mohandas K. Gandhi was from.
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Kingsley's father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born physician of Gujrati Indian descent. Kingsley's mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman) Bhanji, was an English fashion model and actress; she appeared in films in the 1920s and 1930s. Kingsley's maternal grandfather was believed by the family to have been of Russian Jewish or German Jewish descent, while Kingsley's maternal grandmother was of English background, and worked in the garment district of East London. Kingsley's mother was born outside of marriage, and was raised by her own mother.
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Derived his stage name from his grandfather's nickname "Clove King". His grandfather was a spice trader in Zanzibar.
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He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to drama.
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Attended and graduated from Manchester Grammar School in Manchester, England.