PODCAST: 'Elegy' star Sir Ben Kingsley reflects on his remarkable life and career as he turns 65

He may not be as famous as a De Niro or Pacino, as well paid as Beatty or Hanks, or as honored as Nicholson or Hoffman, but years from now, when film historians look back at the decades immediately before and after the turn of the millennium, I suspect they could well conclude that Sir Ben Kingsley was as fine an actor as any of them.

The British actor of Indian descent first caught moviegoers' attention 26 years ago with his breakthrough performance as Mohandas Gandhi in "Gandhi," for which he received the Academy Award for best actor. In the years since, Kingsley has given numerous commanding performances that have elevated numerous other fine films -- as Meyer Lansky, the Jewish gangster who helped to build Las Vegas, in "Bugsy" (1991, best supporting actor Oscar nod); as Itzhak Stern, the Jewish accountant who helped the German businessman Oskar Schindler save thousands of lives in "Schindler's List" (1993, robbed of a best supporting actor Oscar nod); as Don Logan, the ruthlessly violent gangster in "Sexy Beast" (2000, best supporting actor Oscar nod); as Col. Massoud Behrani, the Iranian expatriate in "House of Sand and Fog" (2003, best actor Oscar nod); and the list goes on. Whether or not Kingsley's characters are intended to be the central focal point of a film, they always become it from the moment he steps onto the screen, for he brings an extraordinary degree of intensity, empathy and humanity to them all.

Last week, I had an opportunity to speak with Kingsley -- who will turn 65 on Dec. 31 -- about his remarkable life and work. We touched upon everything from the troubled childhood that inspired him to become an actor, to his rejection from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, to the time in the '60s when John Lennon and Ringo Starr saw him sing and urged him to give up acting for singing, to the mixed emotions he felt after "Gandhi" (he was so good at playing a moral character that, for years, people were reluctant to cast him as an immoral character), to the psychological approach that allows him to play characters good and evil, as well as the deeply personal things he brought to his most recent performance, opposite Penelope Cruz in the critically acclaimed film "Elegy." And I think I got a pretty good sense of what people with whom he has worked mean when they talk about his unusual generosity, honesty and intelligence.

You can listen to our half-hour chat and form your own conclusions by clicking HERE!

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Photo: Ben Kingsley. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Robert Hamer]

His performance in Sexy Beast is his best.

[Scott Feinberg]

I'd personally go with "House of Sand and Fog," but I can respect that.