Discuss: Sir Ben Kingsley …

Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Alec Guiness, Sir Sean Connery … everyone talks about these thespian knights, but what about Sir Ben Kingsley? It seems that Sir Ben tends to get shafted a bit on recognition of his mastery of the art and craft of acting, but maybe that’s because he’s the only one from this list still “in the biz.” With Sir Laurence and Sir Alec having passed on, and Sir Sean having placed himself into early retirement, Sir Ben is the last remaining Hollywood Sir, but is he getting his due respect?

What got me really thinking about this was my recent viewing of Jonathan Levine’s ‘The Wackness’ and the fact that Sir Ben was not only excellent in the movie but was down-right lots of fun to watch… as usual. Sure, he’s not always cast in stellar, successful movies that hail extreme critical applause, but even in the most stinky of cinematic stench (i.e. – Blood Rayne, Thunderbirds) he still makes his mark. Amongst my favorite performances from Sir ben include the following: as ‘Ghandi’ (1982) of course, as the psychotic British mobster Don Logan in ‘Sexy Beast’ (2000), his stellar portrayal of an Iranian-American in the intensely sad and depressing ‘House of Sand and Fog’ (2003), as Frank the alcoholic assassin in ‘You Kill Me’ (2007) and certainly as the pot-smoking shrink Dr. Squires in ‘The Wackness’ (2008).

With that said, surely I’m not alone. I really don’t care what the film is or what it’s about… if it features Sir Ben I’m game. Well, the one difficult exception may be if he chooses to appear in another Uwe Boll film… God help us all. What movies truly stand out for you from Sir Ben Kingsley? Aside from ‘Ghandi’ what is his best performance to date? His worst, perhaps? His least appreciated? If you had to choose one pitch-perfect, dream casting role to fit Sir Ben into, what role in what film would it be?