If you’re wondering why there wasn’t a better actor to pick besides Ben Kingsley for the role of Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi in 1982, it may have to do with the fact that Kingsley is a direct descendent of actual Indian – that would be his father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was born to a family from Jamnagar, a city on the western coast of India. Kingsley himself was born in 1943 in Snainton, a village in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. His mother, Anna Lyna Mary, was an actress and model born in England, so we can assume that the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree and that this greatly influenced Kingsley’s decision to become an actor. With more than 100 movies in his movie portfolio, he is recognized mostly for his roles in Gandhi, Schindler’s List, Shutter Island, Sexy Beast, and Iron Man 3. Over the years, his acting career has enlarged his net worth to a whopping $60 million. Here’s how he did it.
Starting On Stage
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Ben Kingsley has been known for acting in quite a number of lucrative films during his career, which he began professionally in 1966. But prior to his international fame and Hollywood success, he began his acting in front of a live stage audience. Much like the early career path of Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Walkin, Kingsley began in drama and theatre arts clubs to hone his on-stage presence. He studied at the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, at the De La Salle College. It was then that his interest grew for theater dramatics and at the age of 23, during his college graduation, was when he made his debut stage appearance. Then everything changed for the Species actor in 1966 when he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was so committed to acting that he turned down an offer from music producer and The Beatles publisher, Dick James, who promised to mold him into the next big pop star.
He would spend the next 15 years working on the stage performance, starring in Shakespearean plays like As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. He credited his subsequent success mainly to the fact that he changed his name. His birth name, Krishna Pandit Bhanji, was considered too ‘cultural’ and he would often go unrecognized. After legally changing his name to Ben Kingsley, doors of opportunity swung open left and right. He would soon star in a 1982 Arthur Miller production called Death of a Salesman alongside Mel Gibson.
An Ensemble Of Movies
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His very first acting debut was in the movie, Fear Is Key, a British action thriller starring Suzy Kendall, Barry Newman, and John Vernon. However, his fame skyrocketed with his portrayal of Gandhi in Richard Attenborough’s biographical film of the same name in 1982. Kingsley struck gold as the film was a commercial and financial success, grossing $127.8 million worldwide and earning him his first Academy Award for Best Actor. In the years following, he would go on to star in a myriad of British and American films, such as Turtle Diary, a romantic drama called Maurice (1985) starring Hugh Grant, Pascali’s Island (1988) opposite Charles Dance and Helen Mirren, and Without A Clue (1988) as Dr. Watson besides Michael Caine as Sherlock Holmes which grossed a little over $8.5 million.
As he approached the 1990s, Kingsley was finding his footing as an actor and had already established himself in the United Kingdom. He would dominate in the American market with roles in movies such as the biographical film Bugsy (1991), based on the life of gangster Bugsy Siegel, starring Annette Bening and Harvey Keitel; Sneakers (1992) featuring Dan Aykroyd which grossed $105 million, and a 1993 political comedy named Dave starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, earning $92 million. One of his highest paydays came from the historical drama, Schindler’s List (1993) starring Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, which grossed $322.2 million globally. A year later, he and Sigourney Weaver starred together in the 1994 mystery drama, Death And The Maiden, alongside Stuart Wilson.
RELATED: Director’s Cut: The 8 Highest-Grossing Films Directed By Richard Attenborough
New Millenium Movies
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Kinglsey continued to increase his acting credentials well into the 2000s, which ultimately increased his value as an actor and landed him higher-paying roles. He started off the year 2000 with a bang, starring in the British psychological crime film, Sexy Beast, where he plays a sociopathic criminal, for which he was given another Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. By 2003, he was co-starring with celebrities such as Jennifer Connelly and Frances Fisher in the psychological thriller, House of Sand and Fog, which broke even at $16.9 million. The following year, he starred with Aaron Eckhart and Carrie-Ann Moss in the Suspect Zero, which turned out to be a box office bomb. Also in the box office bomb category, Kingsley was the lead actor in the crime comedy, You Kill Me (2007) with Luke Wilson as well as War, Inc. (2008) starring Hillary Duff, John Cusack, and Marisa Tomei.
From 2010 onward, Kingsley’s career can be considered the most financially favorable. He began the new decade co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio in neo-noir psych thriller, Shutter Island, which grossed close to $295 million against an $80 million budget. In 2011, he shared the screen with Sacha Baron Cohen and Jude Law in Hugo, which did $185 million at the box office. A few of his most lucrative movies around this time were Iron Man 3 (2013) where he appeared beside Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle, and grossed an immense $1.214 billion at the global box office. He would go on to star in the science fiction action film, Ender’s Game, with Harrison Ford; Exodus: God’s and Kings (2014) alongside Christian Bale which raked in $268.2 billion; director Shawn Levy’s Night At The Museum 3: Secret of The Tomb, which grossed $368 million; a live-adaptation of Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book (2016) which grossed $966.6 million, and Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings which amassed $432.2 million.
Television And Real Estate
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Kinglsey’s thriving acting career hasn’t been limited to film. He has also found success with television shows and soap operas such as Coronation Street, Crown Court, and The Love School in the early to mid-1970s. During the 1980s, he appeared in a number of made-for-television movies, such as Stanley’s Vision, Lenin: The Train, and Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, the latter of which he received Golden Globe and Emmy Nominations, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Not much information has been given on Kinglsey’s real estate portfolio, but according to Architectural Digest, he owns an enormous and stylish mid-19th century mansion in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. As cited from Reality Today, the Night Hunter actor purchased a $2.7 million Beverly Hills mansion in 2013. In addition to his personal feats, he was also made a Knight Bachelor in 2002 for his services to the British Film Industry.
READ NEXT: Here’s How Christopher Walken Built His $50 Million Fortune
Sources: Roger Ebert, Celebrity Net Worth, Reality Today
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