In this episode of Small Beginnings, we take a look at another Academy Award winning actor from Great Britain with amazing talent: Sir Ben Kingsley.
Sir Ben Kingsley was born in North Riding of Yorkshire as Krishna Bhanji. He later changed his name to Ben Kingsley after his nickname “Benji” and his grandfather’s nickname “King Gloves”, so that his foreign name would not hinder his career.
After doing several plays in College in Salford and Manchester, he was offered to become a pop star, but he rather devoted the next 15 years to stage work on Broadway and Australia before going into film in 1972 playing bit roles at first in film and television in a big variety of roles. In 1982 he won his first Academy Award for his role in Ghandi.
His latest film were “Shutter Island“ (2010), “Iron Man 3“ (2013), “Ender’s Game“ (2013), “Exodus: Gods and Kings“ (2014), “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb“ (2014) and last year he starred as a driving instructor in “Learning to Drive“ and voiced Bagheera in the Disney’s reboot of “The Jungle Book“.
In 2002 he received a Knight Bachelor at the Buckingham Palace for his achievements in the British film industry. After receiving that honor, he told the Queen that the experience of winning an Oscar faded into “insignificance“ compared to such an honorary recognition.
We wish Sir Ben Kingsley all the best for his family and his current projects and hope to see more international talent with the same fascination for art and storytelling!
