Ben Kingsley turns 75

Black pants and a dark bow tie, white jacket and shirt. "I looked like a demented wine waiter," Ben Kingsley later joked about his choice of wardrobe on Oscar night in 1983 when he won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.

The film was the international breakthrough for an actor who had previously performed onstage and in the British soap Coronation Street. Born Krishna Bhanji, he discovered his love for acting when he was very young. When he was 19, his Kenyan-born Indian father told him to get a stage name to increase his chances at auditions. Soon, Ben Kingsley belonged to the ensemble of the renowned Royal Shakespeare Company.

Singing or acting?

His life could have taken a very different turn, as the notoriously quirky actor once told the British newspaper Telegraph. The Beatles' publisher Dick James had offered him a contract after he had heard him sing and play the guitar on stage, he said. John Lennon and Ringo Starr had also reportedly been thrilled by Kingsley's performance. He, however, chose acting.

After his Oscar success in Gandhi, Kingsley played Soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich, who fell from grace under Stalin. In 1988, he ventured into the comedy world in Without a Clue, a Sherlock Holmes parody also starring Michael Caine. Kingsley's parents were unimpressed by their son's great successes. In fact, Kingsley told British media after the death of his mother in 2000 that they were "indifferent," and that he had not had a particularly loving childhood.

Film flops 

His feeling for a good story wasn't always as reliable as his timing in front of the camera. In retrospect, Kingsley wasn't always happy with the roles he agreed to play, and a glance at his filmography shows that sometimes, he was right to doubt the wisdom of his choices.

Kingsley was nominated twice times for a Golden Raspberry, the anti-prize for terrible film work that is awarded the night before the Oscars, including for three films simultaneously in 2009 Yet all in all, the number of films not worth seeing is on par with excellent works.

Brisk business

Unlike many other actors, Kingsley never disappeared from the scene. In 2006 he appeared in the crime thriller Lucky Number Slevin alongside Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis and Josh Hartnett. In 2010 he took on the role of clinic director in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, and a year later — again under Scorsese — he played in the historic adventure drama Hugo. In 2013 he played the Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

An actor has to keep working, he told The Guardian in 2009. "I've got many dependents. There has to be cash flow going towards Ben! Sometimes, it was irresponsible not to take the money, but the director was a dog."

That hasn't marred the respect and generally high esteem the actor enjoys. In 2002, Queen Elizabeth knighted Ben Kingsley.

Ever since, he has kept his colleagues on the film sets on their toes as he insists they address him as Sir Ben.