Ben Kingsley has worked on stage, film and television in a wide range of styles and genres, but came to fame for his award winning role as Gandi in Richard Attenborough's film. He started his career on the stage in rep and then with the RSC doing Shakespeare in Stratford. His first film role was a minor role in Fear Is The Key. During the 1960's and 1970's he appeared in various television roles along side his theatre work. It was his role of Ghandi that changed his career and made him a major star and for which he won an Oscar for best actor.
He followed this up with Betrayal an adaptaion of Harold Pinters play. In the Sherlock Holmes spoof Without A Clue he showed his comic talents alongside Michael Caine. In Bugsy he played a major gangster in Las Vegas. In 1993 he appeared in Schindler's List and his second most powerful performance. In Sexy Beast he plays a psychotic cockney gangster. He was again Oscar nominated for House of Sand and Fog. He worked with Martin Scorsese in the thriller Shutter Island. Hugo was another change of style into childrens adventure films again with Martin Scorsese.
