Sir Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite on 14 March 1933 in Rotherhithe, London.
He is an English actor particularly well known for his distinctive Cockney accent, which he has used in many of the over 115 films in which he has appeared. His accent alone has made him one of the UK’s most recognizable actors.
Now aged 81, Michael Caine’s remarks about age, acting, and life in general give an interesting insight into his character.
He stared acting in 1953 but his breakthrough came in the 1960’s with films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File(1965), Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969), and Battle of Britain(1969).
His had a number of notable roles in the 1970’s including Get Carter(1971), The Last Valley, and Sleuth (1972), for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination. Some of his greatest critical success came in the 1980’s, with Educating Rita (1983) which earned 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. In 1989 he received his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Cider House Rules. In 2000, Caine was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to cinema.
Michael Caine’s remarkable career has now spanned six decades — and he is still working.
These selected remarks perhaps help us to understand why:
- Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
- I’m every bourgeois nightmare – a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.
- I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can’t deal with a woman of their own age.
- I feel like 35. At 35 you’re old enough to know something and young enough to look forward to what you can do with the knowledge. So I stayed at 35!
- I think life has got to develop as you get older, and I don’t want to be wandering along doing the same old thing. I want more out of life.
- The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.
- My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.
- I’ll always be there because I’m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I’ve any talent is beside the point.
- Obsession is a young man’s game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.
- One of the main things about Cockney is, you speak at twice the speed as Americans. Americans speak very slow.
- When you reach the top, that’s when the climb begins.
- I don’t think you retire from movies; movies retire you.
Do these quotations help you to understand Michael Caine better?
How do you rate him as an actor? Which is your favorite film of his?
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