| Ferdinand Kingsley | |
| Birth Name: | Ferdinand James M. Kingsley |
| Birth Date: | 13 February 1988 |
| Birth Place: | Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England |
| Years Active: | 2007–present |
| Mother: | Alison Sutcliffe |
| Father: | Ben Kingsley |
Ferdinand James M. Kingsley (born 13 February 1988) is a British actor. He is known for portraying the roles of Hamza Bey in the film Dracula Untold (2014), Mr. Francatelli in the television series Victoria (2016–2019), Irving Thalberg in the film Mank (2020), and Hob Gadling in Netflix's adaptation of The Sandman (2022). In 2023, he played the mysterious villain A.M. in Reacher on Amazon Prime Video.
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[1] [2] [3] and one of his great-grandfathers was believed by the family to have been of either German-Jewish or Russian-Jewish descent.[4] [5]
Kingsley attended the RSC theatre nursery, Warwick School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.[6]
Kingsley's theatre credits include Troilus and Cressida, and Little Eyolf for the Royal Shakespeare Company.[6] 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.[6]
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.[7] He took the part of Albert Aurier in the BBC production Vincent Van Gogh: Painted With Words.[6] [8] 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.[9]
He played both Jesus and God the Father in the August 2012 production of the York Mystery Plays.[10] [11] 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.[12] 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+,[13] and the mysterious villain A.M. in Reacher (season 2) on Amazon Prime Video.[14]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | The Last Legion | Young Ambrosinus | ||
| 2014 | Dracula Untold | Hamza Bey | ||
| 2020 | Mank | Irving Thalberg |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Painted with Words | Albert Aurier | TV movie | |
| 2012 | The Hollow Crown | Sir John Bushy | Episode: "Richard II" | |
| 2013 | Ripper Street | Joshua Bloom | Episode: "Tournament of Shadows" | |
| Agatha Christie's Poirot | Desmond Burton-Cox | Episode: "Elephants Can Remember" | ||
| The Whale | Obed Hendricks | TV movie | ||
| 2014 | Borgia | Giulio d'Este | Episodes: "1503, Part One","1503, Part Two", "1504","1506" and "1507" | |
| 2016–2019 | Victoria | Charles Elmé Francatelli | Main cast | |
| 2017 | Still Star-Crossed | Aldo Lazzara | Episodes: "Pluck Out the Heart of My Mystery", "Nature Hath Framed Strange Fellows in Her Time" and "Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here" | |
| Doctor Who | Neville Catchlove | Episode: "Empress of Mars" | ||
| 2022 | The Sandman | Hob Gadling | Episode: "The Sound of Her Wings" | |
| 2023 | Silo | George Wilkins | Episodes: "Freedom Day", "Holston's Pick" and "The Relic" | |
| 2023–2024 | Reacher | A. M. | Main cast |
"The grandmother of the knighted Royal Shakespeare Company alum spoke Yiddish she picked up while a garment worker in London's East End a century ago. "She was violently opposed to talking about this, so my poor mother was at the receiving end of a rage attack every time my grandmother was asked about her husband, her lover, whoever it was, but it's believed that he was a Russian Jew or a German Jew called Goodman", Kingsley told The Jerusalem Post".