Ferdinand Kingsley

Early life

Ferdinand James M. Kingsley was born on 13 February 1988 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, the son of actor Ben Kingsley and theatre director Alison Sutcliffe. He is of predominantly English descent; his paternal grandfather was of Khoja Gujarati descent and one of his great-grandfathers was believed by the family to have been of either German-Jewish or Russian-Jewish descent.

Kingsley attended the RSC theatre nursery, Warwick School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Acting career

Kingsley's theatre credits include Troilus and Cressida, and Little Eyolf for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He played Rosencrantz in the National Theatre's 2010–11 production of Hamlet, for which he received a commendation at the 2010 Ian Charleson Awards, and Phaeax in Welcome to Thebes.

In the film The Last Legion he played Young Ambrosinus in flashbacks to the younger days of the character Ambrosinus, played by his father Ben Kingsley. He took the part of Albert Aurier in the BBC production Vincent Van Gogh: Painted With Words. He plays Bushy in Richard II, which is part of the BBC's The Hollow Crown series of Shakespeare's history plays aired in Summer 2012.

He played both Jesus and God the Father in the August 2012 production of the York Mystery Plays. In 2013, Kingsley played the part of murdered Jewish anarchist Joshua Bloom in the BBC period crime drama Ripper Street, and filmed prominent roles in Agatha Christie's Poirot: Elephants Can Remember, the BBC feature film The Whale as Obed Hendricks, and Universal Pictures' 2014 feature Dracula Untold as Hamza Bey. In Spring 2013, Kingsley starred in the short film Dance in Colour by The Crookes. From 2016 to 2019, Kingsley starred in ITV's drama Victoria as Italian British cook Charles Elmé Francatelli. In 2020, he played Irving Thalberg in the film Mank (2020). In 2022, Kingsley featured in the Netflix series The Sandman as Hob Gadling in episode 6, "The Sound of Her Wings".

In 2023, Kingsley portrayed George Wilkins in the series Silo on Apple TV+, and the mysterious villain A.M. in Reacher (season 2) on Amazon Prime Video.

On the air, he has portrayed Aldrich Kemp in the series “Who is Aldrich Kemp”, “Who Killed Aldrich Kemp”, and “Aldrich Kemp and the Rose of Pamir” by Julian Simpson.

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio

Stage

References

References

1. (13 December 1982). "Ben Kingsley's Journey From Hamlet to Gandhi". [[The New York Times]].
2. Husband, Stuart. (24 April 2013). "Sir Ben Kingsley: 'Without a mask, I haven't got a clue'". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
3. "BBC – A History of the World – Object : Sir Ben Kingsley's gold turban".
4. Krieger, Hilary Leila. (10 April 2005). "'Gandhi' brings his 'truth-force' to Palestinian audiences". The Jerusalem Post.
5. Pollack, Joe. (3 January 1994). "He's No Stranger to Holocaust". St. Petersburg Times.
6. "National Theatre".
7. "Film4oD – the Last Legion".
8. "Painted with Words".
9. (24 November 2011). "Cast confirmed for BBC Two's cycle of Shakespeare films". BBC Media Centre.
10. (24 May 2012). "Meet God — and Jesus Christ". [[The Press (York).
11. (24 May 2012). "Actor to play both God and Jesus". [[BBC News Online]].
12. "Ferdinand Kingsley".
13. Fremont, Maggie. (30 June 2023). "Let's Get to the Bottom of That ''Silo'' Finale".
14. Petski, Denise. (September 21, 2022). "''Reacher'' Rounds Out Season 2 Cast With Serinda Swan, Ferdinand Kingsley, Rory Cochrane, More".
15. "Who Is Aldrich Kemp?".
16. "Who Is Aldrich Kemp? (Podcast Series 2022)".
17. "Who is Aldrich Kemp?".
18. "Who killed Aldrich Kemp?".
19. "The Lovecraft Investigations".
20. "The Comeuppance".