Subject: FW: Sir Ben Kingsley talks about his Zanzibari Ismaili intecedents]
At 60, Sir Ben Kingsley has achieved an international stature which no English actor has achieved since Sir Laurence Olivier. He has played Gandhi, Lenin, Moses, and a host of disparate historical characters. In the following interview reported in Sued Deutsche about his family's humble Zanzibari Ismaili origins.
His grandfather, an orphan survivor of a shipwreck was adopted by a spice merchant in Zanzibar. Taking over the business in adulthood, he went to South Africa from where he sent his 14 year old son, Rahimtoola Bhanji to England to study medicine. It was only with the financial help of Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah that Rahimtoola completed his medical degree.
He started his practice in Manchester where he married an English actress, Anne. The couple had a son in 1943 whom they named Krishna. At 19, the lab assistant to be decided to follow in his mother's footsteps. His father acquiesced in this decision, but advised him to take on an English name if he wanted to succeed in the then England. He took on his father's nickname "Ben" (Bhanji). Krishna Bhanji (KB) became Ben Kingsley (BK). It will forever be a matter of speculation if "Krishna Bhanji" would have been as successful as Ben Kingsley has been.