Michael Caine announces retirement from acting: 'I might as well leave with all this'

Michael Caine is stepping away from the spotlight.

The two-time Oscar winner confirmed that he's officially retiring from acting in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today show on Saturday. "I keep saying I'm going to retire," he said. "Well, I am now."

Caine explained that he feels ready to bid farewell to Hollywood following the success of his new critically acclaimed World War II drama, The Great Escaper.

"I've figured, I've had a picture where I've played the lead and it's got incredible reviews," Caine said. "The only parts I'm likely to get now are old men, 90-year-old men, maybe 85. And I thought, 'Well, I might as well leave with all this — I've got wonderful reviews. What have I got to do to beat this?'"

Mike Marsland/WireImage Michael Caine

Still, Caine maintained that it was important to feature older characters in movies. It's partially why he continued to act for so long. "With me, it's not quite as diminishing as you think," he said. "I'm 90, and I remember when I was young talking to old men of 90 and they weren't a little bit like me. They were little tiny old men with humped shoulders… And I thought, 'I'm not like that and it's changed.'"

Now, the 90-year-old Dark Knight star is preparing to go back to the books — literally — with the release of his debut thriller, Deadly Game, in November.

"I got COVID and I was sat there and I had nothing to do. I couldn't do any movies, nothing," Caine said of writing the novel. "I've always wanted to be a writer and I've written several biographies. Then I wrote a fiction book… I'm quite amazed [it's been published]."

While he dismissed the idea of ever returning to the silver screen, Caine, who has published several autobiographies, did reveal that he plans to keep writing.

"I'll write another book sometime because I so enjoyed writing," he said. "The thing about movie-making is that you have to get up at 6:30 in the morning, learn your lines in the bloody car, and then get there and work until 10 at night. With writing you don't have to get out of bed — all you need is pencil and paper and you can start!"

Caine, who very nearly retired in the 1990s, previously floated the idea of hanging up his hat during an interview with The Telegraph last month. "I am bloody 90 now, and I can't walk properly and all that," he said at the time. "I sort of am retired now."

Over the course of his nearly 70-year acting career, Caine has starred in more than 130 different films and won two Oscars, three Golden Globes, one SAG award, and one BAFTA award for his performances in The Cider House Rules, Educating Rita, Hannah and Her Sisters, and more. His other notable works include Dunkirk, Sleuth, California Suite, Inception, Get Carter, The Italian Job, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Interstellar, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and Tenet.

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