108 Facts About Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine was born on Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933 and is a retired English actor.

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

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

Michael Caine solidified his stardom with roles in Get Carter, The Last Valley, The Man Who Would Be King, The Eagle Has Landed, and A Bridge Too Far.

Michael Caine received two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles as Elliot in Woody Allen's dramedy Hannah and Her Sisters, and as Dr Wilbur Larch in Lasse Hallstrom's drama The Cider House Rules.

Michael Caine is known for his performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, and for his comedic roles in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Miss Congeniality, Austin Powers in Goldmember, and Secondhand Lions.

Michael Caine portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

Michael Caine has had roles in five other Nolan films: The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Tenet.

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

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 and a fish market porter called Maurice Joseph Micklewhite.

Michael Caine's father was from a Catholic Irish Traveller family background.

Michael Caine had a younger brother, Stanley, who became an actor, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell.

Michael Caine grew up in London's Southwark district; during the Second World War, he was evacuated 100 miles to North Runcton, Norfolk, where he made his acting debut at the village school and had a pet horse called Lottie.

At the age of 10, Michael Caine acted in a school play as the father of the ugly sisters in Cinderella.

Michael Caine then worked briefly as a filing clerk and messenger for a film company in Victoria and film producer Jay Lewis on Wardour Street.

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

Michael 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.

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

Michael Caine's film debut was an uncredited walk-on role in Morning Departure.

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

Michael Caine has described the first nine years of his career as "really, really brutal" as well as "more like purgatory than paradise".

Michael Caine 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 Caine White performing as an actor in London and that he had to come up with a new name immediately.

Michael Caine 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".

Michael Caine later joked in interviews that, had he looked the other way, he would have ended up as "Michael One Hundred and One Dalmatians".

In 1958, Michael Caine played the minor role of a court orderly in a BBC Television adaptation of the story, The Michael Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.

Michael Caine moved in with another rising cockney actor, Terence Stamp, and began hanging out with him and Peter O'Toole in the London party scene after he had become O'Toole's understudy in Lindsay Anderson's West End staging of Willis Hall's The Long and the Short and the Tall in 1959.

Michael Caine took over the role when O'Toole left to make Lawrence of Arabia and went on to a four-month tour of the UK and Ireland.

Michael Caine's first credited role on the BBC was in 1956, where he played Boudousse in the Jean Anouilh play The Lark.

Michael Caine has appeared 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 starring Frank Finlay.

Michael Caine acted in radio plays, including Bill Naughton's Looking for Frankie on the BBC Home Service.

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.

Michael Caine believes Endfield offered him, a Cockney, the role of an aristocrat because, being American, he did not have the endemic British class-prejudice.

Subsequently, Michael Caine's agent got him cast in the BBC production Hamlet at Elsinore as Horatio, in support of Christopher Plummer's Hamlet.

Horatio was the only classical role which Michael Caine, who had never received dramatic training, would ever play.

Michael Caine went on to play Harry Palmer in a further four films, Funeral in Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain, Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in Saint Petersburg.

Michael Caine made his first film in Hollywood in 1966, after an invitation from Shirley MacLaine to play opposite her in Gambit.

Michael Caine starred in the film The Magus which, although BAFTA-nominated for Best Cinematography, failed at the box office.

Michael Caine starred in the 1969 comedy caper film The 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.

Michael Caine continued with successes including Sleuth opposite Laurence Olivier, and John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King co-starring Sean Connery, which received widespread acclaim.

In 1976, Michael Caine appeared in Tom Mankiewicz's screen adaptation of the Jack Higgins novel The Eagle Has Landed as Oberst Kurt Steiner, the commander of a Luftwaffe paratroop unit disguised as Polish paratroopers, whose mission was to kidnap or kill the then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, alongside co-stars Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter and Donald Pleasence.

Michael Caine was part of an all-star cast in A Bridge Too Far.

In 1978, Michael Caine starred in Silver Bears, an adaptation of Paul Erdman's 1974 novel of the same name, and co-starred in the Academy Award-winning California Suite.

Michael Caine averaged two films a year, but these included such films as The Swarm, Ashanti and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure.

Michael Caine co-starred with Julie Walters in Educating Rita, for which he won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe Award.

In 1987, Michael Caine narrated Hero, the official film of the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

Michael Caine played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Michael Caine played a villain in the Steven Seagal film On Deadly Ground.

Michael Caine was starred two straight to video Harry Palmer sequels and a few television films.

The film was a massive box office success and Michael Caine earned praise for his comic turn.

That same year Michael Caine appeared in Philip Kaufman's controversial yet acclaimed film Quills as Dr Royer-Collard opposite Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, and Joaquin Phoenix.

In 2001, Michael Caine starred in the ensemble dramedy Last Orders starring Helen Mirren, Bob Hoskins, and Tom Courtenay.

Michael Caine earned his sixth Academy Award nomination as well as a Golden Globe Award and British Academy Film Award for his performance.

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.

Michael Caine is one of the few actors to have played a starring role in two versions of the same film.

Michael Caine starred in multiple comedies during this time, including playing Austin's father in Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Michael Caine played family elder Henry Lair in the 2004 film Around the Bend.

Michael Caine appeared in Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller Inception as Prof.

Michael Caine starred in the 2012 film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, as Josh Hutcherson's character's grandfather; the film featured Dwayne Johnson and Vanessa Hudgens.

Michael Caine reprised his role as Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman sequel The Dark Knight Rises, which was released in July 2012.

Michael Caine played the role of Arthur Tressler, an insurance magnate and the Four Horsemen's sponsor.

Michael Caine appeared in Nolan's 2014 science-fiction film Interstellar as Professor Brand, a high-ranking NASA scientist, ideator of Plan A, former mentor of Cooper and father of Amelia.

In 2015, Caine co-starred in Matthew Vaughn's action spy comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service starring Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, and Samuel L Jackson.

In May 2015, Michael Caine starred in Paolo Sorrentino's Italian comedy-drama film Youth alongside Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, and Jane Fonda.

Michael Caine appeared in the lead role of retired composer Fred Ballinger, where he and the film won great acclaim at its debut at the Cannes Film Festival.

Michael Caine received a London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actor of the Year nomination for his performance.

In October 2015, Michael Caine read Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Claus and Big Claus" for the children's fairytales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF, together with Sir Roger Moore, Stephen Fry, Ewan McGregor, Dame Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley, David Walliams, Charlotte Rampling and Paul McKenna.

In 2017, Michael Caine was cast in a spoken cameo role in Christopher Nolan's action-thriller Dunkirk, based on the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II, as a Royal Air Force Spitfire pilot, as a nod to his role of RAF fighter pilot Squadron Leader Canfield in Battle of Britain.

In 2018, Michael Caine starred as Brian Reader in King of Thieves, which was based on the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary of 2015.

Michael Caine appeared in the children's fantasy film, Come Away starring Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

In interviews promoting the 2021 film Best Sellers, Michael 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.

In 2022, Michael Caine filmed The Great Escaper, a British-French feature film starring Michael 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.

Michael Caine officially confirmed his retirement from acting on 13 October 2023, mainly because of the decreasing likelihood of him getting any more leading roles.

Michael Caine announced his retirement from acting in a BBC Today radio programme interview with Martha Kearney.

Michael Caine has brought some of British cinema's most iconic characters to life and introduced his very own laid-back cockney gangster into pop culture.

Michael Caine doggedly retained a regional accent at a time when the plummy tones of Received Pronunciation were considered obligatory.

Michael Caine 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".

At Myers' request, Michael Caine himself starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember, with his portrayal of Nigel Powers, father of Austin Powers, spoofing Harry Palmer.

In 2018, Michael Caine starred in a British Airways pre-flight safety video, appearing with six other British celebrities, including actresses Olivia Colman and Naomie Harris.

Michael Caine has lived in North Stoke, Oxfordshire; Clewer, Berkshire and Lowestoft, Suffolk.

Michael Caine owns an apartment at the Apogee in Miami Beach, Florida.

Michael Caine still keeps a small flat near where he grew up in London.

Michael Caine was married to actress Patricia Haines from 1954 to 1958.

Michael Caine dated Edina Ronay, Nancy Sinatra, Natalie Wood, Candice Bergen, Bianca Jagger, Jill St John, Elisabeth Ercy and Francoise Pascal.

Michael Caine has been married to actress and model Shakira Baksh since 8 January 1973.

Michael Caine called her every day for ten days until she finally agreed to meet him.

Michael Caine suffered from severe epilepsy and had been kept in Cane Hill Mental Hospital his entire life.

In July 2016, Michael Caine changed his name by deed poll to his long-time stage name to simplify security checks at airports.

Michael 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:.

Michael Caine 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.

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.

Michael Caine has sung in film roles as well, including Little Voice and for the 1992 musical film The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Michael Caine quit his 80-a-day smoking habit in the early 1970s after a lecture from Tony Curtis.

Michael Caine is a supporter of the football club, Chelsea FC.

Proceeds from the books went to the National Playing Fields Association, a UK charity for which Michael Caine served as vice president, and which aims to protect and promote open spaces for sports and recreation in British cities and towns.

Michael 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.

Michael Caine 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:.

In July 2014, Michael Caine was reported to have been a celebrity investor in a tax avoidance scheme called Liberty.

In November 2014, Michael Caine described the proposed mansion tax by then Labour leader Ed Miliband as "preposterous and silly".

Michael Caine voted in favour of Brexit in the 2016 European Referendum, stating he would rather be a "poor master than a rich servant".

In November 2024, following the election of Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister in the July of that year, Michael Caine supported the petition on the UK Parliament petitions website that demands a new general election in the UK by sharing it on his X account.

Michael 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 2000 for The Cider House Rules, in both cases as a supporting actor.

Michael Caine is one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every consecutive decade from the 1960s to 2000s ; Laurence Olivier was nominated for an acting Oscar in five consecutive decades as was Denzel Washington.

Michael Caine appeared in seven films that were ranked in the BFI's 100 greatest British films of the 20th century.

Michael Caine was appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1992 Birthday Honours, and in the 2000 Birthday Honours he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his contribution to cinema.

In 2008, Michael Caine was awarded the prize for Outstanding Contribution to Showbusiness at the Variety Club Awards.

In May 2012, Michael Caine was awarded the Honorary Freedom of the London Borough of Southwark as a person of distinction and eminence of the borough.

In 2017, Michael Caine was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.