Michael Caine at 90: From Humble Beginnings to Hollywood

“The only alternative to playing the elderly is to play the dead. I choose the elderly”, joked Michael Caine when presenting his film “Youth” at Cannes in 2015. Now, at 90 years old, ending his acting career is not an alternative that Caine is considering.

The British actor has acted in about 160 films, among them many brilliant works, and some not so much. Actor Kevin Kline likes to joke that, in the 1990s, a video store in London even had a little section called “Films Without Michael Caine.” There’s a grain of truth to this, as Caine is a workaholic among the stars. What moves him is having fun with his work.

‘I did a lot of shit’

“Sir” Michael, as he may call himself after being knighted by the Queen, was born in London on March 14, 1933. His father worked in the fish market and his mother a cleaning lady. He grew up in extreme poverty, which affected him throughout his life.

Since his main goal was to earn a lot of money, he was not particularly picky about choosing roles. “I screwed up a lot,” he openly admitted in several interviews. Speaking about “Jaws 4”, he told the German weekly magazine Focus who only accepted the insignificant part in it because it paid well and because he wanted to buy a house for someone in his family.

Caine, born Maurice Micklewhite, began his career in the mid-1950s with small roles on stage and television.

He landed his first leading role in “Zulu” (1964), playing a colonial officer defending a Swedish mission against an attack by local warriors. “Director Cy Endfield was American. A British director would never have given me, a proletarian, the role of lieutenant,” Caine once told the German weekly. Die Zeit.

Oscar nominations and awards

In 1967, Caine received his first Academy Award nomination for his performance in “Alfie”. The film’s protagonist was a charming narcissist with a cockney accent; such a portrayal was unheard of in conservative society in Britain at the time.

In his private life, Caine never got rid of his Cockney accent, although he speaks pure Oxford English in most of his films.

Further Oscar nominations followed, notably for “Detective” in 1973, as well as for “Educating Rita” in 1984, a modern film adaptation based on the novel “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw.

In 1987, Caine finally received his first Oscar, for best supporting actor as Elliot in Woody Allen’s “Hannah and her Sisters”.

Speaking about his collaboration with director Woody Allen, who has since been accused of sexual assault by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, Caine said The Guardian in a 2018 interview: “I can’t accept that, because I loved Woody and had so much fun with him. I even introduced him to Mia [Farrow]. I don’t regret working with him, which I did in complete innocence; But I wouldn’t work with him again.”

A second Oscar came in 2000 for Caine’s portrayal of Dr. Wilbur Larch in a film adaptation of John Irving’s “The Cider House Rules”.

In 2003, Caine, then in his late 70s, was once again nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in “The Quiet American,” based on a novel of the same title by Graham Greene.

Over the years

In addition to his work, Caine is interested in amateur theater, real estate, and art collecting. And he has some strong political views: “I voted for Brexit… I’d rather be a poor boss than a rich servant.”

His private life was not always happy. Just recently, Caine admitted in an interview with radio schedules that at the beginning of his career he drank a whole bottle of vodka every day: “I wasn’t unhappy, but I had a lot of stress”.

His wife Shakira, with whom he has been married since 1973, gave him comfort. “Without her, I would have died a long time ago. I would probably have drunk myself to death.” Today, he prefers to drink a glass of wine only with his meal.

In 2017, Caine starred opposite Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin in the comedy “Going in Style”, which is about seniors. “What’s trending, luckily for me, is movies for older people,” he said. The Guardian.

Still about the film set in the 90s

His newly shot film, “The Great Escaper”, is scheduled for release in 2023. In it, he plays a war veteran who disappears from his retirement home to attend the 70th anniversary celebrations of D-Day in France.

This article was originally written in German.