Sir Ben Kingsley, born in Yorkshire, England in 1943 to an Englishwoman and a Kenyan of Indian descent, began his career with "The Royal Shakespeare Company". With his first leading cinema role, in Richard Attenborough's 1982 movie GANDHI he immediately landed his greatest success. His portrayal of Gandhi won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 1983 Academy Awards, and he also received a BAFTA Award and a Grammy for his recording of Gandhi's speeches.
His celebrated performance as Gandhi brought him numerous other top-class engagements, including MAURICE (1987), BUGSY (1991) and SNEAKERS (1992). In 1993, Steven Spielberg cast him in SCHINDLER'S LIST as Itzhak Stern, Oskar Schindler's Jewish secretary, a role that cemented Kingsley's status as a legend.
Since then, Kingsley has often appeared in such cult pictures as THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG (2003), LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN (2007) and WAR INC. (2008), as well as mainstream box office hits like PRINCE OF PERSIA (2010), IRON MAN 3 (2013) and EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (2014) and SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGENDS OF THE TEN RINGS (2021). With Martin Scorsese, he starred in SHUTTER ISLAND (2010) and HUGO CABRET (2011), and with Roman Polanski in DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1994) and OLIVER TWIST (2005). He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001. In 2010, Kingsley received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.
Previous recipients of the Golden Icon Award include, among others, Glenn Close, Hugh Grant, Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Penn and last year's recipient Sharon Stone. The presentation of the award at the ZFF is one of the festival's most glamorous highlights.
Credit Suisse is Partner of the Golden Icon Award.
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