ARTS AND CULTURE

Ben Kingsley

Actor

British actor Sir Ben Kingsley has been a household name ever since his unforgettable, Oscar-winning performance in the title-role of Gandhi (1982). In a dinstinguished screen career spanning five decades, Kingsley has often taken on Jewish roles – most memorably as Itzhak Stern in Schindler's List (1993). Other Jewish heroes he has played include Simon Wiesenthal in a 1989 HBO biopic – a role his close friend Wiesenthal urged him to take on – and Otto Frank in a 2002 television adaptation of Anne Frank's diary. But in his latest film Operation Finale (2018), Kingsley depicts the infamous SS officer, Adolf Eichmann, one of the principle architects of the Nazi Holocaust. "The torturer doesn’t have the last word," Kingsley said of playing Eichmann in a recent interview. "To quote Elie Wiesel, the last word belongs to the victim." (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.)