Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English retired actor.[2] Known for his distinctive Cockney accent,[3] he has appeared in more than 160 films over a career that spanned eight decades and is considered a British cultural icon.[4][5] He has received numerous awards including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide.[6] Caine is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades.[nb 1] In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Blue plaque at the former school in North Runcton where, as a wartime evacuee, Caine made his stage debut
Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite at St Olave's Hospital in the Rotherhithe district of London on 14 March 1933,[10][11][12][13] the son of cook and charwoman Ellen Frances Marie (née Burchell; 1901–1989)[14][15] and a fish market porter also called Maurice Joseph Micklewhite (1899–1957). His father was from a CatholicIrish Traveller family background.[16] Caine was raised in his mother's Protestant faith.[17] He had a younger brother, Stanley (1935–2013), who also became an actor, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He grew up in London's Southwark district; during the Second World War, he was evacuated100 miles (160km) to North Runcton, Norfolk, where he made his acting debut at the village school and had a pet horse called Lottie.[18][19]
After the war, Caine's father was demobilised and the family were rehoused by the council in Marshall Gardens in London's Elephant and Castle area, where they lived in a prefabricated house made in Canada[20] as much of London's housing stock had been destroyed during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941. Caine later wrote in his autobiography, "The prefabs, as they were known, were intended to be temporary homes while London was reconstructed, but we ended up living there for eighteen years—and for us, after a cramped flat with an outside toilet, it was luxury."[21]
At the age of 10, Caine acted in a school play as the father of the ugly sisters in Cinderella. His trousers' zipper was undone, prompting the audience to laugh, which inspired him to pursue an acting career.[22] In 1944, he passed his eleven-plus examination, winning a scholarship to Hackney Downs School.[23] After a year there, he moved to Wilson's School in Camberwell, which he left at age 16 after gaining School Certificates in six subjects. He then worked briefly as a filing clerk and messenger for a film company in Victoria and film producer Jay Lewis on Wardour Street.[24]
Caine, seeing first-hand how the Chinese used human wave tactics, was left with the sense that the communist government did not care about its citizens. Having been previously sympathetic towards the ideals of communism, Caine was left repelled by it.[25] He experienced a situation in which he thought he was going to die, the memory of which stayed with him and "formed his character". In his 2010 autobiography The Elephant to Hollywood, he wrote that "The rest of my life I have lived every bloody moment from the moment I wake up until the time I go to sleep."[26][27][28][29]
Caine has said that he would like to see the return of national service in Britain, to help combat youth violence, stating: "I'm just saying, put them in the Army for six months. You're there to learn how to defend your country. You belong to the country. Then, when you come out, you have a sense of belonging, rather than a sense of violence."[30]
Acting career
1950–1963: Acting debut and early roles
Caine's film debut was an uncredited walk-on role in Morning Departure (1950). A few years later in Horsham, Sussex, he responded to an advertisement in The Stage for an assistant stage manager who would also perform bit parts for the Horsham-based Westminster Repertory Company, who were performing at the Carfax Electric Theatre.[31] Adopting the stage name "Michael White", in July 1953 he was cast as the drunkard Hindley in the company's production of Wuthering Heights.[32][33][clarification needed] He moved to the Lowestoft Repertory Company in Suffolk for a year when he was 21. It was here that he met his first wife, Patricia Haines.[34] He has described the first nine years of his career as "really, really brutal"[35] as well as "more like purgatory than paradise".[18] He appeared in nine plays during his time at the Lowestoft Rep at the Arcadia Theatre with Jackson Stanley's Standard Players.
When his career took him to London in 1954 after his provincial apprenticeship, his agent informed him that there was already a Michael White performing as an actor in London and that he had to come up with a new name immediately.[32] Speaking to his agent from a telephone booth in Leicester Square, London, he looked around for inspiration, noted that The Caine Mutiny was being shown at the Odeon Cinema, and decided to change his name to "Michael Caine".[32] He joked on television in 1987 that, had a tree partly blocking his view been a few feet to the left, he might have been called "Michael Mutiny". (Humphrey Bogart was his "screen idol" and he would later play the part originally intended for Bogart in John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King.)[15] He also later joked in interviews that, had he looked the other way, he would have ended up as "Michael One Hundred and One Dalmatians".[36] In 1958, Caine played the minor role of a court orderly in a BBC Television adaptation of the story, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.[37]
Caine continued to appear on television, in serials The Golden Girl and No Wreath for the General, but was then cast in the play The Compartment, written by Johnny Speight, a two-hander also starring Frank Finlay. This was followed by main roles in other plays including the character Tosh in Somewhere for the Night, a Sunday-Night Play written by Bill Naughton televised on Sunday 3 December 1961, another two-hander by Johnny Speight, The Playmates, and two editions of BBC plays strand First Night, Funny Noises with Their Mouths and The Way with Reggie (both 1963). He also acted in radio plays, including Bill Naughton's Looking for Frankie on the BBC Home Service (1963). A big break came for Caine when he was cast as Meff in James Saunders' Cockney comedy Next Time I'll Sing To You, when this play was presented at the New Arts Theatre in London on 23 January 1963.[38] Scenes from the play's performance were featured in the April 1963 issue of Theatre World magazine.[39]
When this play moved to the Criterion in Piccadilly with Michael Codron directing, he was visited backstage by Stanley Baker, one of the four stars in Caine's first film, A Hill in Korea, who told him about the part of a Cockney private in his upcoming film Zulu, a film Baker was producing and starring in. Baker told Caine to meet the director, Cy Endfield, who informed him that he already had given the part to James Booth, a fellow Cockney who was Caine's friend, because he "looked more Cockney" than Caine did. Endfield then told the 6'2" Caine that he did not look like a Cockney but like an officer, and offered him a screen test for the role of a snobbish, upper class officer after Caine assured him that he could do a posh accent. Caine believes Endfield offered him, a Cockney, the role of an aristocrat because, being American, he did not have the endemic British class-prejudice. Though he tested poorly, Endfield gave him the part that would make him a film star.[40]
Caine during filming in 1967 in his third outing as crook-turned-spy Harry Palmer
Location shooting for Zulu took place in Natal, South Africa, for 14 weeks in 1963.[41][42][43] According to his 2010 autobiography The Elephant to Hollywood, Caine had been signed to a seven-year contract by Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Films was distributing Zulu. After the return of the cast to England and the completion of the film, Levine released him from the contract, telling him, "I know you're not, but you gotta face the fact that you look like a queer on screen." Levine gave his contract to his Zulu co-star James Booth.[44] Subsequently, Caine's agent got him cast in the BBC production Hamlet at Elsinore (1964) as Horatio, in support of Christopher Plummer's Hamlet. Horatio was the only classical role which Caine, who had never received dramatic training, would ever play. Caine wrote, "...I decided that if my on-screen appearance was going to be an issue, then I would use it to bring out all Horatio's ambiguous sexuality."[45]
Caine's roles as effete-seeming aristocrats were to contrast with his next projects, in which he was to become notable for using a regional accent, rather than the Received Pronunciation then considered proper for film actors. At that time his working-class Cockney speech stood out to American and British audiences alike, as did the Beatles' Liverpudlian accents. Zulu was followed by two of Caine's best-known roles: the rough-edged petty-crook-turned-spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965) and the titular womanising young Cockney in Alfie (1966). In a 2016 interview Caine cited Alfie as his favourite film of his career, saying, "it made me a star in America as well, and it was my first nomination for an Academy Award".[46] He went on to play Harry Palmer in a further four films, Funeral in Berlin (1966), Billion Dollar Brain (1967), Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996).[47] Caine made his first film in Hollywood in 1966, after an invitation from Shirley MacLaine to play opposite her in Gambit. During the first two weeks, whilst staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he met long-term friends John Wayne and agent "Swifty" Lazar. Wayne was a fan of Caine's performance in Alfie and suggested to Caine, "Speak slow and speak low". Caine was always grateful for that advice.[48] Caine starred in the film The Magus (1968) which, although BAFTA-nominated for Best Cinematography, failed at the box office.
Caine starred in the 1969 comedy caper filmThe Italian Job as Charlie Croker, the leader of a Cockney criminal gang released from prison with the intention of doing a "big job" in Italy to steal gold bullion from an armoured security truck. One of the most celebrated roles of his career, in a 2002 poll his line "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" was voted the second-funniest line in film (after "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy" from Monty Python's Life of Brian),[49] and favourite one-liner in a 2003 poll of 1,000 film fans.[50] Culminating in a cliffhanger, The Italian Job has one of the most discussed end scenes in film; what happened to the coachload of gold teetering over the edge of a cliff has been debated in the decades since the film was released.[51][52]
After working on The Italian Job with Noël Coward, and a role as RAF fighter pilot squadron leader Canfield in the all-star cast of Battle of Britain (both 1969), Caine played the lead in Get Carter (1971), a British gangster film. Caine also starred in a comedy thriller[53]Pulp (1972). Caine continued with successes including Sleuth (1972) opposite Laurence Olivier, and John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (1975) co-starring Sean Connery, which received widespread acclaim.[54]The Times applauded the "lovely double act of Caine and Connery, clowning to their doom", while Huston paid tribute to Caine's improvisation as an actor: "Michael is one of the most intelligent men among the artists I've known. I don't particularly care to throw the ball to an actor and let him improvise, but with Michael it's different. I just let him get on with it."[54] In 1974, Caine appeared in The Black Windmill, co-starring Donald Pleasence.
In the 1990s, Caine found good parts harder to come by. He played the mysterious bartender Mike in Mr. Destiny in 1990 and appeared with Roger Moore in Bullseye! (1990).He played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).[64][65] Having been chosen by Brian Henson, Caine stated: "I'm going to play this movie like I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink, I will never do anything Muppety. I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me."[66] He played the beleaguered stage director Lloyd Fellowes in the film adaptation of Noises Off (1992). He also played a villain in the Steven Seagal film On Deadly Ground (1994). He was starred two straight to video Harry Palmer sequels and a few television films.
1998–2014: Career resurgence
Caine in London at the European premiere of The Dark Knight, July 2008
Several of Caine's classic films have been remade, including The Italian Job, Get Carter, Alfie and Sleuth. Caine appeared in Get Carter the 2000 American action thriller film directed by Stephen Kay; a remake of his 1971 film Get Carter, in which a younger Michael Caine played the title role. Here in the 2000 remake, Caine's role was originally relegated to a one-scene cameo appearance, which he agreed to do as a favor to his friend Sylvester Stallone. However, after a test screening, additional scenes were scripted and shot to expand his role. The film was released in the U.S. on October 6, 2000. Critical reaction was negative, and the film flopped at the box office, with worldwide earnings of approximately only $19 million against a production budget of nearly $64 million. Stallone said: "Believe it or not, I think Get Carter was really underrated. That was a big disappointment. I learned the hard way that [remakes], even if you do it better than the original, there’s a tremendous nostalgia attached to the original. And quite often they’re not done as well." In the 2007 remake of Sleuth, Caine took over the role Laurence Olivier played in the 1972 version and Jude Law played Caine's original role. Caine is one of the few actors to have played a starring role in two versions of the same film. In an interview with CNN, Law spoke of his admiration for Caine: "I learned so much just from watching how he monitored his performance, and also how little he has to do. He's a master technician and sometimes he was doing stuff I didn't see, I couldn't register. I'd go back and watch it on the monitor, it was like 'Oh my God, the amount of variety he's put in there is breathtaking".[69]
In May 2019, Caine was cast as Sir Michael Crosby, a British Intelligence officer, in Christopher Nolan's Tenet (2020).[82] The film starred John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh. The film received an American release during the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020 after being delayed multiple times and became a box office disappointment, despite receiving positive reviews.[83][84] Caine also appeared in the children's fantasy film, Come Away (2020) starring Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews, with critics praising its performances and lavish production design.[85][86] In the 2021 film Twist, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist set in the present day, Caine plays Fagin.[87] In interviews promoting the 2021 film Best Sellers, Caine suggested that he would not make another film, citing difficulty in walking and his new interest in novel-writing developed during the COVID-19 lockdowns.[88] However, his representatives told Variety that he was not retiring from acting.[89] In 2022, Caine filmed The Great Escaper, a British-French feature film starring Caine and Glenda Jackson, based on the true-life story of a British World War II veteran who 'broke out' of his nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France, in June 2014.[90] The film was released on 6 October 2023.[90]
Caine officially confirmed his retirement from acting on 13 October 2023, mainly because of the decreasing likelihood of him getting any more leading roles.[91] Caine announced his retirement from acting in a BBC Today radio programme interview with Martha Kearney. Referring to The Great Escaper he said, "I keep saying I'm going to retire, well I am now, because I figured, I've had a picture which is — I played the lead and it's got incredible reviews. The only parts I'm liable to get now are old men, 90-year-old men, and I thought well I might as well leave with all this. I've got wonderful reviews. What am I going to do to beat this?"[92]
In popular culture
"I kept my cockney accent in order to let other working class boys know that if I made it, they could do it too."
—Caine speaking to CNN's The Screening Room in 2007 on retaining his accent.[69]
Caine is regarded as a British cultural icon, with Mairi Mackay of CNN stating: "Michael Caine has been personifying British cool since the swinging sixties. He has brought some of British cinema's most iconic characters to life and introduced his very own laid-back cockney gangster into pop culture. He doggedly retained a regional accent at a time when the plummy tones of Received Pronunciation were considered obligatory. It is a sweet irony that his accent has become his calling card."[69] In 2015 The Times called Caine "the epitome of Sixties cool in his first outing as the secret agent Harry Palmer".[7] A trailer for his second role as Palmer described him as possessing "horn rims, cockney wit and an iron fist".[93]
With his distinctive voice and manner of speaking, Caine is a popular subject for impersonators and mimics.[94] Most Caine impressions include the catchphrase "Not a lot of people know that."[69] The catchphrase emanates from Caine's habit of informing people of obscure "interesting facts" that he has collected.[95] Referring to Caine as being the "biggest mine of useless information", Peter Sellers initiated the catchphrase when he appeared on BBC1's Parkinson show on 28 October 1972 and said:
Not many people know that. This is my Michael Caine impression. You see, Mike's always quoting from the Guinness Book of Records. At the drop of a hat he'll trot one out. 'Did you know that it takes a man in a tweed suit five-and-a-half seconds to fall from the top of Big Ben to the ground?' Now there's not many people who know that![96]
Caine later spoke of how Sellers used his impression of him as his answering machine message in the 1970s: "I called Peter one day, he wasn't in. And there was me saying, 'My name is Michael Caine. I just want you to know that Peter Sellers is not in. Not many people know that.' He invented that 'not many people know that.' And then everybody who rang him, they got me saying, 'Not many people know that.'"[97] Over the years Caine himself had parodied his catchphrase and his "interesting facts", and has imitated others' impressions of him.[98] In an interview with Michael Parkinson in 2007, Caine commented on the impersonations of his voice, "I can do it. 'Hello. My name is Michael Caine. Not many people know that.' I sound like a bloody moron. You know where they've got me now? On birthday cards. 'It's your birthday today. Not many people know that'. Now they've got me on Satellite navigation. It's me going, 'take the second turn on the right, and you'll wind up right in the shit.'"[98] In 1983, Caine used his "not a lot of people know that" phrase as a joke in the film Educating Rita.[69]
The comedy sketch show Harry Enfield's Television Programme included a series of sketches in which Paul Whitehouse played a character called Michael Paine; an amalgam of previous Michael Caine impressions, who in a reference to Caine's character Harry Palmer from The Ipcress File wears oversized, thick-rimmed glasses and a trench coat. He introduces himself with the line, "My name is Michael Paine, and I am a nosy neighbour" and in a spoof of the stakeout at the beginning of The Ipcress File, recounts to the camera the 'suspiciously' mundane behaviour of his neighbours, before saying, "Not a lot of people know that I know that".[99] Caine's Harry Palmer character (with the glasses, the girls, and disregard for authority) was among the many British pop cultural influences for Mike Myers' Austin Powers films.[100] At Myers' request, Caine himself starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), with his portrayal of Nigel Powers, father of Austin Powers, spoofing Harry Palmer.[100]
A parody of Caine appears in the animated series Ugly Americans, in the episode "The Dork Knight", which also parodies the film The Dark Knight. In the episode, Caine appears as himself, portrayed in the light of his Alfred Pennyworth interpretation, and constantly annoys the protagonists with endless anecdotes of his career.
The 2010 television series The Trip, starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, featured improvised scenes in which the two leads argue over who can do the better Michael Caine impression.[101] Among the lines they repeat in their attempts to outdo each other are, "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" and, "She was only sixteen years old"—from The Italian Job and Get Carter, respectively.[101] Coogan and Brydon later did their impressions from a balcony at the Royal Albert Hall during a celebration of Caine's work, only to be interrupted by the real Caine informing them that they were out of shape: "For me, it's a full-time job."[102]
Craig Ferguson ran segments on his show where he parodied Caine, usually while wearing a space suit.[103] In a 2010 interview with The Telegraph, Caine spoke of the impersonations and how everyone he meets quotes lines at him, to the point he quotes them quoting him.[99] When asked whether he is ever tired of telling his anecdotes, Caine stated: "I enjoy making people laugh. The trick is to tell them against yourself. If you praise yourself your stories aren't funny."[99]
In 2018, Caine starred in a British Airways pre-flight safety video, appearing with six other British celebrities, including actresses Olivia Colman and Naomie Harris. Promoting the Flying Start children's charity partnership between BA and Comic Relief, they are featured 'auditioning' in humorous sketches while also highlighting important safety messages.[104]
Personal life
Caine and his wife Shakira in Venice, Italy, in 2014
As of 2023[update], Caine divides his time between residences in Chelsea Harbour and Wimbledon, London.[105] He previously lived in Leatherhead, Surrey, in a house with a theatre which cost him £100,000 to build.[105][106] He was patron to the Leatherhead Drama Festival.[107] He has also lived in North Stoke, Oxfordshire; Clewer, Berkshire and Lowestoft, Suffolk. Caine owns an apartment at the Apogee in Miami Beach, Florida. He still keeps a small flat near where he grew up in London. Caine has published three volumes of memoirs, What's It All About? in 1992, The Elephant to Hollywood in 2010 and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life in 2018.[108][109]
Proud of his working class roots, Caine has discussed the opportunities his film career gave him: "I got to play football with Pelé, for God's sake. And I danced with Bob Fosse."[99] He also became close friends with John Lennon, stating: "With John and I it was a case of bonding because we were both working class and we shared a sense of humour. We were pretending we weren't who people thought we were."[99] His closest friends included two James Bond actors, Sean Connery and Roger Moore.[99]
Some time after his mother died, Caine and his younger brother, Stanley, learned they had an elder half-brother named David. He suffered from severe epilepsy and had been kept in Cane Hill Mental Hospital his entire life. Although their mother regularly visited her first son in the hospital, even her husband did not know the child existed. David died in 1992.[120]
In July 2016, Caine changed his name by deed poll to his long-time stage name to simplify security checks at airports. Caine stated that because the security guard often recognised him but was unaware of his real name, it would waste a considerable amount of his time as he tried to prove that he and "Maurice Joseph Micklewhite" were the same person:
"[A security guard] would say, 'Hi Michael Caine,' and suddenly I'd be giving him a passport with a different name on it. I could stand there for an hour. So I changed my name."[121]
Music and other interests
Caine is a fan of chill-out music, and he released a compilation CD called Cained in 2007 on the UMTV record label.[122][123] He met his good friend Elton John and was discussing musical tastes, when Caine said that he had been creating chillout mix tapes as an amateur for years.[123][124] Caine and Elton John had also appeared on the same episode of Parkinson, where they sang an impromptu version of the pub tune "Knees Up Mother Brown".[125] Also in music, Caine provided vocal samples for the ska-pop band Madness for their 1984 hit "Michael Caine", as his daughter was a fan. He has sung in film roles as well, including Little Voice and for the 1992 musical film The Muppet Christmas Carol.[126]
Caine quit his 80-a-day smoking habit in the early 1970s after a lecture from Tony Curtis.[127] He is a supporter of the football club, Chelsea FC.[128] Caine is also a fan of cricket. This was alluded to by Gary Oldman, who acted with Caine in The Dark Knight Rises, when he talked about Caine's acting methods: "It's, 'Take one'. He got it. 'Take two', got it. 'Take three', got it. He's just on the money. ... He doesn't fuck around because he wants to get back to cricket."[129]
Trivia books written by Caine include Not Many People Know That!, And Not Many People Know This Either!, Michael Caine's Moving Picture Show, and Not a Lot of People Know This Is 1988. Proceeds from the books went to the National Playing Fields Association, a UK charity for which Caine served as vice president, and which aims to protect and promote open spaces for sports and recreation in British cities and towns.[130] Starting in 1976 Caine became part owner of Langan's Brasserie and at one point had ownership in seven restaurants in the UK and United States.[131]
Political views
Caine has often been outspoken about his political views, referring to himself as a "left-wing Tory" influenced by both his working class background and Korean War service.[132][133] He left the United Kingdom for the United States in the late 1970s, citing the income tax levied on top earners by the Labour government of James Callaghan, which then stood at 83%.[134] He lived in Beverly Hills during that time, but returned to the UK eight years later when taxes had been lowered by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher:
I realised that's not a socialist country, it's a communist country without a dictator, so I left and I was never going to come back. Maggie Thatcher came in and put the taxes back down and in the end, you know, you don't mind paying tax. What am I going to do? Not pay tax and drive around in a Rolls-Royce, with cripples begging on the street like you see in some countries?[135]
Following the launch of his film Harry Brown in 2009, Caine called for the reintroduction of national service in the UK to give young people "a sense of belonging, rather than a sense of violence".[136]
In 2009, Caine publicly criticised the Labour government of Gordon Brown for its new 50% income tax rate on top earners and threatened to return to the United States if his taxes were increased further.[133] During the run up to the 2010 general election, Caine publicly endorsed the Conservative Party and appeared with then-party leader David Cameron for the launch of a civilian non-compulsory "National Service" for sixteen-year-olds, although Caine stated he had previously supported New Labour under the leadership of Tony Blair in 1997.[137] In July 2014, Caine was reported to have been a celebrity investor in a tax avoidance scheme called Liberty.[138] In November 2014, Caine described the proposed mansion tax by then Labour leader Ed Miliband as "preposterous and silly".[139]
Caine voted in favour of Brexit in the 2016 European Referendum, stating he would rather be a "poor master than a rich servant".[140] He said he was a reluctant Leaver; "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out."[141]
In a 2010 Classic FM interview, Caine said that he had persuaded a doctor to deliberately give his father a fatal overdose when he was dying from liver cancer in 1955 and endorsed voluntary euthanasia.[143]
Caine has been nominated for an Oscar six times, winning his first Academy Award for the 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters, and his second in 1999 for The Cider House Rules, in both cases as a supporting actor. His performance in Educating Rita in 1983 earned him the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Caine is one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every consecutive decade from the 1960s to 2000s (the other one being Jack Nicholson); Laurence Olivier was also nominated for an acting Oscar in five consecutive decades (from the '30s through the '70s) as was Denzel Washington (from the '80s to the '20s). Paul Newman received acting Oscar nominations at least once per each of five distinct decades (from the 1950s to the 2000s)—albeit not consecutively, having been overlooked throughout the '70s. Caine appeared in seven films that were ranked in the BFI's 100 greatest British films of the 20th century.[144]
Caine has written four memoirs across several decades. He published the first, What's It All About?, in 1992. Its title is a quote from the title song from his 1966 hit film Alfie. The book was reviewed negatively in The New York Times, which called it an "archetypal show-business memoir" that was engaging but tainted by the book's "name-dropping, the sexual boasting, the sensitivity to slights".[155] His second memoir, The Elephant to Hollywood, was published in 2010. Its title refers to his journey from working class roots in the Elephant and Castle neighborhood of London to Hollywood success. Janet Maslin of The New York Times reviewed it positively, calling Caine a "charming raconteur" and "wittily self-deprecating".[156] His third memoir, Blowing the Bloody Doors Off, was published in 2018. Its title references an iconic quote from his 1969 hit film The Italian Job. His fourth memoir, Don't Look Back, You'll Trip Over: My Guide to Life, was published in 2024.
Fiction
Caine's first novel, a thriller entitled Deadly Game, was published in November 2023.[157]
Bibliography
Not Many People Know That!: Michael Caine's Almanac of Amazing Information. Hodder & Stoughton. 1984. ISBN978-0340379059.
And Not Many People Know This Either!. Robson Books. 1985. ISBN978-0860513452.
Acting in Film: An Actor's Take on Moviemaking. Applause Theatre Book Publishers. 1990. ISBN9781557832771.
What's It All About? An Autobiography. Random House. 1992. ISBN978-0394584218.
The Elephant to Hollywood. Henry Holt & Company. 2010. ISBN9781429982863.
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life. Hachette. 2018. ISBN978-0316451192.
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Sir John Vincent Hurt was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. He was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in the world". He possessed what was described as the "most distinctive voice in Britain". He received numerous awards including the BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award in 2012 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 for his services to drama.
Sir Ben Kingsley is an English actor. He has received accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor in 2002 for services to the British film industry. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and received the Britannia Award in 2013.
Sir Roger George Moore was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985). Moore's seven appearances as Bond are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries.
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three British Academy Film Awards, and nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. His films have grossed over $11 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.
Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Known for his sophisticated villain roles, he was named by Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995. He has received various accolades including a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and a Silver Bear as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards.
Timothy Simon Roth is an English actor. He was among a group of prominent British actors known as the "Brit Pack".
Robert Lindsay Stevenson, known professionally as Robert Lindsay, is an English actor and narrator. He has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in musical theatre, and is the recipient of a British Academy Television Award, a Tony Award, and two Laurence Olivier Awards.
Sir William Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona, he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s, and later a producer.
Rufus Frederik Sewell is a British actor. In film, he has appeared in Carrington (1995), Hamlet (1996), Dangerous Beauty (1998), Dark City (1998), A Knight's Tale (2001), The Legend of Zorro (2005), The Illusionist (2006), Amazing Grace (2006), The Holiday (2006), The Tourist (2010), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), Judy (2019), The Father (2020), and Old (2021).
Saeed Jaffrey was a British-Indian actor. His career covered film, radio, stage and television roles over six decades and more than 150 British, American, and Indian movies. During the 1980s and '90s, he was considered to be Britain's highest-profile Asian actor, thanks to his leading roles in the movie My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and television series The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) and Little Napoleons (1994). He played an instrumental part in bringing together film makers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant and acted in several of their Merchant Ivory Productions films such as The Guru (1969), Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978), The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) and The Deceivers (1988).
James Booth was an English film, stage and television actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Private Henry Hook in Zulu.
Hamlet at Elsinore is a 1964 television version of the c. 1600 play by William Shakespeare. Produced by the BBC in association with Danmarks Radio, it was shown in the U.S. on NET. Winning wide acclaim both for its performances and for being shot entirely at Helsingør, in the castle in which the play is set. It is the only version of the play to have actually been shot at Elsinore Castle. This programme was recorded and edited on video tape and not 'filmed'. The director was Philip Saville. It was the longest version of the play telecast in one evening up to that time, running nearly three hours. A 1947 telecast of the play had split it up into two ninety-minute halves over two weeks.
Jack O'Connell is an English actor. He first gained recognition for playing James Cook in the British television series Skins. He is also known for his roles in This Is England (2006), the slasher film Eden Lake (2009), the television dramas Dive (2010) and United (2011), and the Netflix wild west miniseries Godless (2017), for which he received a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination.
Norbert Smith: A Life, is a 1989 mockumentary television film, charting the life and career of the fictitious British actor Sir Norbert Smith. It stars Harry Enfield in the title role. It was written by Enfield and Geoffrey Perkins and directed by Geoff Posner.
Sir Alec Guinness was an English actor. In the British Film Institute listing of 1999 of the 100 most important British films of the 20th century, he was the single most noted actor, represented across nine films — six in starring roles and three in supporting roles — including five directed by David Lean and four from Ealing Studios. He won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Tony Award. In 1959, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980 and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 1989.
1 2 "Classic film of the week: The Ipcress File (1965)". The Times. Retrieved 17 June 2022. Michael Caine is the epitome of Sixties cool in his first outing as the secret agent Harry Palmer. His cockney smarts, his horn-rimmed glasses
↑ "Style Heroes: 1960s Michael Caine". The Rake. Retrieved 17 June 2022. Caine's signature was undoubtedly his thick, horn-rimmed glasses. He wore a number of subtly varying styles throughout the sixties
↑ "Australian Penthouse – Michael Caine: 1960s". Real Art Press. Retrieved 17 June 2022. With his no-nonsense, laconic delivery, horn-rimmed glasses and sharply cut suits, he epitomised a new class of British cool. "Michael Caine was the 1960s,"
↑ Michael Caine, What's It All About (Ballantine Books, 1994)
↑ Rotherhithe did not become part of the London Borough of Southwark until its creation in 1965. In 1933, it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey in the County of London (abolished 1965)
↑ Michael Caine, My Autobiography: The Elephant to Hollywood (Hodder & Stoughton, 2011), p. 16.
1 2 Michael, Caine (16 October 2018). Blowing the bloody doors off: and other lessons in life. London. ISBN9781473689305. OCLC1057482446.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ For an account of his evacuation and early school years, as sent to Jerry Pam—another Hackney Downs pupil whom he met in the 1950s, who was six years his senior, and who has become his publicist for "over 50 years"—see "MC" [Michael Caine], "A Message from Evacuee Maurice Micklewhite", The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (March 2009): 16.
1 2 Hall, William (2004). The Biography of Sir Michael Caine; 70 Not Out. John Blake. ISBN1-84454-019-7.
↑ Halliday, Jon; Chang, Jung (2 June 2005). Mao: The Unknown Story. New York City: Doubleday. p.446.
↑ Interview with Mike Ostler by Roxanne Blakelock (15 October 2004) for the British Library Theatre Archive Project at www.bl.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2012
↑ The Actors – Sir Michael Caine Q&A, Indie London at www.indielondon.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2012
↑ Rob Carnevale, The Prestige – Michael Caine Interview, Indie London at www.indielondon.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2012
↑ The Two-Headed Spy, Turner Classic Movies Film Article at www.tcm.com. Retrieved 12 January 2012
↑ Zulu War 1879 Discussion and Reference Forum (A Small Victorian War in 1879) in www.1879zuluwar.com/t3518-films-of-michael-caine. Retrieved 14 January 2012
↑ Extract from The Elephant to Hollywood in Reader's Digest Australia at www.readersdigest.com.au. Retrieved 14 January 2012
↑ Stadiem, William (2014). Jet Set: The People, the Planes, the Glamour, and the Romance in Aviation's Glory Years. Random House. p.73. ISBN978-0345536976.
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