Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley is one of the most distinguished actors of his generation as well as being one of very few actors to have won an Oscar, Golden Globe, Bafta and Screen Actors Guild.
After studying at the University of Salford and Pendleton College he kicked off his acting career in television with the role of Ron Jenkins in Coronation Street between from 1966 to 1967.
He made his movie debut in 1972 in Fear Is The Key, an adaptation of the Alistair MacLean and he continued to move between television and movies, including the long running TV show Crown Court.
However he only found fame with his most acclaimed performance in Richard Attenborough's Ghandi in 1992 in which he played Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi.
In South Africa, a young Indian lawyer is booted off a train for refusing to ride second-class. Fed up with the unjust political system, he joins the Indian Congress Party, which encourages social change through passive resistance.
When his "subversive" activities land him in jail, masses of low-skilled workers strike to support his non-violent yet revolutionary position. Back in India, Gandhi renounces the Western way of life and struggles to organize Indian labour against British colonialism.
A strike costs many British soldiers their lives, so the crown responds by slaughtering 1,500 Indians. Enraged, the ascetic, spiritual leader continues to preach pacifism until he has lead India out from under the tyranny of British imperialism.
For his performance Kingsley won Best Actor at the Oscars for his performance and the film was a critical and commercial success.
Kingsly re-invented himself in the early nineties taking on a string of morally ambiguous characters including Meyer Lansky in Bugsie Malone, a performance for which he was Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and Cosmo in Sneakers.
His other high profile and highly praised performance came in 1993 in Schindler's List, in which he took on the role of Itzhak Stern.
Spielberg's Schindler's List is the true story of Austrian industrialist Oskar Schindler, who harboured Polish Jews during WWII by using them as workers in his factory. Schindler saved 1,100 Jews from certain death.
The actor received a CBE in 2000 and was knighted in 2001. He turned in another great performance in 2001 in British gangster movie Sexy Beast alongside Ray Winstone. Another Best Supporting Actor nomination came his way.
In recent years the actor has continued to work steadily with appearances in Lucky Number Slevin, You Kill Me, The Last Legion, War, Inc and The Wackness.
And this year looks to be another busy year for the actor with roles in Ashecliffe, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Whispers Like Thunder.
This weeks sees him star alongside Jim Sturgess in 50 Dead Men Walking. Belfast in the 1980s, with no end in sight to the decades-long conflict of the 'Troubles'.
A fearless 22-year-old hustler, Martin (Jim Sturgess) feels little empathy for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the violent brand of justice they wield in the city's estates.
But Martin has attracted the attention of Fergus (Ben Kingsley), master of surveillance and an experienced 'handler' with British intelligence.
Fergus plans to use Martin as an informant, infiltrating the IRA and then reporting on their activities from the inside.
Fifty Dead Men Walking is released 10th February
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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