Ben Kingsley

Early life and education[edit]

Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji on 31 December 1943, in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire.^[4][5][6] His mother, Anna Lyna Mary (née Goodman) (1914–2010), was an English actress and model, and she later gave birth to a second son called Sadru Bhanji, who later worked as a psychiatrist in Devon. She was born out of wedlock and "was loath to speak of her background".^{[7][8][9][10]} His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji (1914–1968), was born in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) to a family originating from the Indian city of Jamnagar, of Khoja Gujarati descent.^[11][12] Kingsley's paternal grandfather, Harji Bhanji, was a successful spice trader who had moved from India to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, where Kingsley's father lived until moving to the United Kingdom at the age of 14.^[13][14][15] Kingsley's maternal grandfather was believed by the family to have been of Russian- or German-Jewish descent, while his maternal grandmother was English and worked in the garment district of London's East End.^[16] Kingsley stated in 1994, "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."^[17] In a 2016 interview, he indicated that his maternal grandmother was impregnated by a Russian Jewish immigrant who later abandoned her, which led her to become a "vile anti-Semite."^[18]


Kingsley grew up in Pendlebury, Lancashire. Although his father was a Gujarati Khoja who practised Isma'ili Shia Islam, Kingsley was not raised in his father's faith, and identifies as a Quaker.^[19][18] He was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, where one of his classmates was actor Robert Powell.^[20] Kingsley went on to study at De La Salle College in Salford, which later became home to The Ben Kingsley Theatre. While at college, he became involved in amateur dramatics in Manchester, making his professional stage debut on graduation, aged 23.