Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English retired actor.

Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over a career spanning eight decades and is considered a British film icon.

He has received numerous awards including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite at St Olave's Hospital in the Rotherhithe district of London on 14 March 1933, the son of cook and charwoman Ellen Frances Marie (née Burchell; 1901–1989) and fish market porter also called Maurice Joseph Micklewhite (1899–1957).

His father was Catholic of Irish and Romani

descent.

Caine was raised in his mother's Protestant faith.

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 evacuated 100 mi to North Runcton, Norfolk, where he made his acting debut at the village school and had a pet horse called Lottie.

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 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."

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.

In 1944, he passed his eleven-plus examination, winning a scholarship to Hackney Downs School.

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.

Caine's uncredited film debut was a 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.

In 1952, Caine was called up to do his national service.

Between 1952 and 1954 he served in the British Army's Royal Fusiliers, first at the British Army of the Rhine Headquarters in Iserlohn, West Germany, and then on active service in the Korean War.

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.

He experienced a situation in which he thought he was going to die, the memory of which stayed with him and "formed his character".

Adopting the stage name "Michael White", in July 1953 he was cast as the drunkard Hindley in the company's production of Wuthering Heights.

He moved to the Lowestoft Repertory Company in Suffolk for a year when he was 21.

Often playing a Cockney, Caine made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), The Italian Job (1969), and Battle of Britain (1969).

During this time he established a distinctive visual style wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses combined with sharp suits and a laconic vocal delivery; he was recognised as a style icon of the 1960s.

His other Oscar-nominated films include Alfie (1966), Sleuth (1972), Educating Rita (1983), and The Quiet American (2002).

He solidified his stardom with roles in Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and A Bridge Too Far (1977).

Other notable performances include in the films California Suite (1978), Dressed to Kill (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Little Voice (1998), Quills (2000), Children of Men (2006), Harry Brown (2009), and Youth (2015).

Caine received two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles as Elliot in Woody Allen's comedy Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and as Dr. Wilbur Larch in Lasse Hallström's drama The Cider House Rules (1999).

Caine is also known for his performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), and for his comedic roles in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Miss Congeniality (2000), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), and Secondhand Lions (2003).

In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Caine portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy (2005–2012).

He has also had roles in five other Nolan films: The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), and Tenet (2020).

He announced his retirement from acting in October 2023, with his final film being The Great Escaper, which came out in the same month.

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."

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."

As of 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide.

Caine is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades.