Michael Caine turns 90: The 2-time Oscar winner looks back at his long career

Susan King
·5 min read
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The cinematic universe would be far less rich without Michael Caine. It may sound like a well-worn cliché, but he truly is an international treasure. An enduring icon with a seven-decade career. He’s appeared in such acclaimed films as
“Alfie,” “Get Carter,” Sleuth,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” “Educating Rita,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “The Cider House Rules,” “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy.

He’s received six Oscar nominations and won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA, three Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guld Award and numerous critics’ honors. He’s made Cockney accents and oversized glasses sexy. He’s an accomplished writer, penning two memoirs: 1992’s “What’s It All about” and 2010’s ‘The Elephant to Hollywood.” And two days after the 95th Oscars, Caine will celebrate his 90th birthday. Though Caine walks with a cane due to a spine issues, he recently completed a film “The Great Escaper” with fellow two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson.

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“He always makes it look easy and natural,” film historian Leonard Maltin noted in a 2009 L.A Times interview. “That is the mark of a true artist. He started out as a young stud leading man but then showed he had skills to back up his charisma, so he earned respect to go along with his stardom. “

And as Caine aged, Maltin added, “he didn’t shy away from character parts. He always found a way to bring color and life to any role he played. He’s a very skilled craftsman, as he proved in a series of illustrated lectures on the craft of acting, he did some years ago for the BBC, but he never lets you know the wheels are turning.”

I’ve interviewed Caine a lucky seven times over the years. He’s an utter charm boat with charisma to spare. Caine may be one of the greatest actors but in interviews he’s just a bloke who relishes his roles as husband, father and grandfather. He and his wife of 50 years Shakira have long lived a country life. “I don’t get up early in the morning,” he told me in 2015. “I am a gardener and a cook. I cook a really good turkey. I know I am boasting, but I really do.”

What does he think of his best films? I posed that question to him in a 2009 L.A Times interview. Here is what he said:

“The Ipcress File”  (1965)
Caine’s first of five outings as British counterespionage agent Harry Palmer.
“That was terribly important for me because that is the first time I got my name above the title in a movie. I was definitely the star of it.”

“Alfie” (1966)
Caine earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination as slick womanizer in swinging London.
“It got my entry into the United States as a British actor, and my first Oscar nomination, so it was a double whammy for me. I was Alfie and the picture was called ‘Alfie.’ I was off and running then.”

“Get Carter” (1971)
Caine plays a vicious thug out to avenge his brother’s death.
“That was a picture I liked very much. I really wanted to do that because I felt people didn’t understand criminals. It was criticized for being violent, but every piece of violence was just one bang. We wanted to show what just one whack could really do you. It was actually based on a guy I knew. He came up to me after that film -he didn’t know I based it on him-and said ‘I thought it was a load of crap, it’s so unreal. We are all married with children. I have got five kids.’”

“The Man Who Would Be King” (1975)
Caine and Sean Connery play two adventurers in John Huston’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s tale.
“That was an incredible experience. It was very funny the way I got it. I was in Paris with my wife. I was staying at the Hotel Georges V, and about 11 on a Saturday morning, the phone rang and the voice said, ‘This is John Huston…. I have a movie I’d like you do it. I am at the bar next door.’ I went down and he said, “I was originally going to do this with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart but they both passed away on me. ‘ Humphrey Bogart was one of my favorite actors and I got to play his part, which I thought was fantastic.”

“Dressed to Kill” (1980)
He plays a murderous transvestite New York shrink
“That was my only foray into transvestism. It was a very scary movie. I was a great fan of Brian De Palma. He came to me because every American actor turned him down. I’m sure because it was transvestism. But I wasn’t afraid of that. But I must say that women’s clothes are very uncomfortable. “

“Batman Begins” (2005); “The Dark Knight” (2008); “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)
Caine plays Bruce Wayne’s butler and surrogate father Alfred
“I had never done these big movies, but when Christopher Nolan said do you want to play the part, I said yes. It was a wonderful part. Very often in big blockbusters action movies the people are ciphers, but never in a Christopher Nolan movie.”

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