Table of Contents

Michael Caine Biography

Michael Caine (Sir Michael Caine) was born on 14th March 1933 in Rotherhithe, London, United Kingdom. He is an English actor, producer, and author.

Michael Caine started his acting career at the age of 20 in Horsham, Sussex. He made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films, including Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), Alfie (1966), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, The Italian Job (1969), and Battle of Britain (1969). His most notable roles in the 1970s included Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), Sleuth (1972), for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination, The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and A Bridge Too Far (1977). He achieved some of his greatest critical success in the 1980s, with Educating Rita (1983), earning him the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. In 1986, he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters.

Michael Caine Age

Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr. on 14 March 1933 in St Olave’s Hospital in Rotherhithe, London. He grew up in Southwark, London, and during the Second World War, he was evacuated to North Runcton near King’s Lynn in Norfolk

Michael Caine Family

His father, Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Sr., was a fish market porter, while his mother, Ellen Frances Marie Burchell, was a cook and charwoman. His father had Irish ancestry, and was a Catholic, though the actor was brought up in his mother’s Protestant religion. Caine had an elder maternal half-brother named David William Burchell, and a younger full brother, Stanley Micklewhite.

He grew up in Southwark, London, and during the Second World War, he was evacuated to North Runcton near King’s Lynn in Norfolk. After the war, his father was demobilised, and the family were rehoused by the council in Marshall Gardens at the Elephant and Castle in a prefabricated house made in Canada.

Michael Caine Wife

On 8th January 1973 he married Shakira Baksh, an actress and model. They met after Caine saw her appearing in a Maxwell House coffee commercial and a friend gave him her telephone number. He called her every day for ten days until she finally agreed to meet him. They have a daughter, Natasha Haleema. From 1955 to 1962, he was married to actress Patricia Haines and they have a daughter, Dominique.

Michael Caine Children

Michael Caine has two children Dominique Caine and Natasha Caine.

Michael Caine Daughter

He was married to actress Patricia Haines from 1955 to 1962. They have a daughter, Dominique. Michael Caine Daughter, Dominique was named after the heroine of the novel The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

Michael Caine Real Name

Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr. He however legally changed his name to the showbiz moniker, Michael Caine which he adopted in 1954.

Michael Caine Name Change

The legendary British actor, born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr., legally changed his name to the showbiz moniker he adopted in 1954 because of the rise in airport security checks prompted by Islamic State.

“An airport security guard would say, ‘Hi, Michael Caine,’ and suddenly I’d give him a passport with a different name on it,” Caine said. “I could stand there for an hour. So I changed my name.”

He began his acting career on the Sussex stage as Michael Scott. He was required to change his handle after moving to London, where another Michael Scott was already treading the boards. During a harried call to his agent he looked outside the telephone box and saw a poster for the Humphrey Bogart naval drama The Caine Mutiny.

“I was opposite the Odeon and I looked up, and my favourite actor is Humphrey Bogart, and there it was,” Caine said.

Michael Caine Net Worth

Michael Caine has an estimated Net Worth of $78 million.

Michael Caine Books

Michael Caine has published two volumes of memoirs, What’s It All About? in 1992 and The Elephant to Hollywood in 2010.

Michael Caine Movies – Michael Caine Films

Michael Caine

Michael Caine TV Shows

Michael Caine Characters

Michael Caine Awards

Michael Caine Oscar

He has been nominated six times for the oscarawards and won twice in 2000 for the BestSupporting Actor for ‘The Cider House Rules’ and in 1999 for Best Supporting Actor for his role on ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’

Nominations

Michael Caine Interview

You have one of the most distinctive speaking voices in film. Did you realize that early on?

Michael Caine: I was very aware of the class distinction in England. I spoke with a Cockney accent, which is obviously working class, and everybody in the theaters was very posh. What I didn’t know was that there were drama schools teaching those sorts of things. So I came straight into acting with a Cockney accent, and I was very successful for a period because at that time these working-class writers came along, and they were writing working-class parts. Then after I made Alfie, it was very popular, and then suddenly they said, “You’ve got to redo 122 lines,” because Alfie was being released in America. And that’s where my voice came from, the one I have now.

You changed your voice?

Michael Caine: I had to make Cockney understandable to Americans. One of the main things about Cockney is, you speak at twice the speed as Americans. Americans speak very slow.

You write that you’re nothing like your most famous roles. Have you ever played a character who is like you?

Michael Caine: I’ve never played anyone quite like me. I always play bounders and scoundrels and rakes, but I’m actually a very staunch family man. I believe in the institution [of marriage] as much as I do in any religion. But I have been a scoundrel, I have been a rake, I have been a waster. I can look back and see who I was, but I’ve never played who I am.

How hard was it to make the transition from leading man to character actor?

Michael Caine: It wasn’t difficult. I had been a theater actor for nine years. A lot of movie stars are not great actors; they’re just very good-looking. And when they start to age and they don’t have the looks any more, then it’s over. But I’d been a repertory actor, and so I was quite willing to take all different parts, parts that were not glamorous or sexy.

You missed the Oscar ceremony when you won the Academy Award for Hannah and Her Sisters to make Jaws: The Revenge. Do you have any regrets about that?

Michael Caine: Not at all. Hannah and her Sisters came out in the dumping period of January and February. It did well, it got very good reviews, but there was no [Oscar] campaign. I’d taken a part that was a week in a movie, which I’d done before several times. They said, “We’re making this film about Jaws, will you do seven days on that?” [The Oscars] came out of the blue; I was astonished that I was nominated. I went to Universal and said, “Can you change the schedule?” and they said no: “We can’t, because we’re stuck with the boats and the traps.” And so I had to be there, and so I missed it.

You’ve been in some films — Jaws: The Revenge and The Swarm come to mind — that did not have the most positive receptions. Are either of them underappreciated?

Michael Caine: No. I didn’t think they were very well made. I don’t take responsibility for Jaws: The Revenge, because I had a longer part in Batman Begins. But I do take responsibility for when I’m the lead, like in The Swarm. The extenuating circumstance there was I was a young actor from England in Hollywood, and one of the biggest producers there asked me to play the lead in a movie. And it was going to be a special-effects film, all the bees would be swarming and killing everybody. And I said, “Yeah, that would be fantastic!” I didn’t realize that if you make a special-effects film, and the special effects don’t work, you’re in a little bit of trouble.

You’ve worked with Christopher Nolan, Brian De Palma and Woody Allen. How do their working methods compare?

Michael Caine: I think they’re all brilliant in their genres. I think Brian De Palma is one of the best thriller directors and Woody is one of the best at romantic comedy. Christopher does bigger pictures, and I think we have to put him slightly up there above those two, in the David Lean class. If you look at the opening sequence of The Dark Knight, it’s one of the best opening sequences I’ve ever seen; and if you look at the closing monologue by Heath Ledger, you see that he can direct actors.

Inception was your fourth Nolan film and you’re working on a fifth. Are you his good-luck charm?

Michael Caine: I’ve made four very successful pictures with Christopher. I’m not his good-luck charm; he’s mine.

Can you explain Inception in one sentence?

Michael Caine: If I’m in a scene, it’s real; if I’m not, it’s not.

Michael Caine Accent