Michael Caine says he's 'sort of' retiring: 'At least I've lived to f---ing 90'

Shania Russell
·3 min read
1
Michael Caine says he's 'sort of' retiring: 'At least I've lived to f---ing 90'

Michael Caine is reflecting on the highs and lows of being 90 as he plans for his future.

The legendary English actor admitted in a recent interview with The Telegraph that his upcoming World War II drama, The Great Escaper, could very well be his last. Though he has previously discussed — and later backtracked on — the idea of retirement, Caine said this time things are different.

"I wasn't 90 then," he told the outlet. "I am bloody 90 now, and I can't walk properly and all that. I sort of am retired now."

Michael Caine attend "The Great Escaper" World Premiere at BFI Southbank on September 20, 2023 in London, England.
Michael Caine attend "The Great Escaper" World Premiere at BFI Southbank on September 20, 2023 in London, England.

Mike Marsland/WireImage Michael Caine

Opening up about his age, Caine added that the best part of being 90 is that "nobody expects you to do very much and people do things for you." The worst thing about it, however, is that "so much disappears from your life."

He continued, "You can't run around, you can't play football, and you gradually realize you're approaching death."

But Caine maintains a healthy outlook. "Everybody's going to die. At least I've lived to f---ing 90," he said. He added that he has had "the best possible life I could have thought of" with "the best possible wife and the best possible family."

As he winds down his time on the silver screen, Caine keeps busy in other ways — since 1984, he has penned six books, including three autobiographies and an upcoming thriller. "I'm very happy with that because it's something I can do without walking," he said. "All you need is a chair and a pencil and paper."

Caine has considered retirement in the past. In 2021, he suggested that his comedy Best Sellers, co-starring Aubrey Plaza, would be his last film. "There's not exactly scripts pouring out with a leading man who's 88," he said at the time, but after outlets picked up the news, Caine and his representatives quickly clarified that he had not yet taken his final bow.

"I haven't retired and not a lot of people know that," Caine wrote in a tweet.

In his 2018 memoir, Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life, Caine revealed that he very nearly retired in the 1990s — until Jack Nicholson talked him out of it. He explained that he was getting very few offers once he entered his 60s. After moving to Miami and opening a restaurant, he contemplated backing away from the craft entirely. That's when Nicholson stepped in.

"Jack brought me a script for a movie called Blood and Wine and talked me into coming out of my so-called retirement and going back to work," Caine wrote. "I did, and the truth was revealed to me — or I allowed myself to see it: However happy I kidded myself I was, I was never going to be happier than when I was acting."

In Caine's latest movie, The Great Escaper, he stars opposite Glenda Jackson, who died at 87 in June, just months after filming ended. It opens in U.K. cinemas on Oct. 6.

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