Actors do not come much more legendary than Sir Michael Caine. With a career spanning an incredible eight decades, reaching from the 1950s to the 2020s, Caine has been a familiar face on the silver screen for literal generations.
What’s more, Caine — who usually has a sharp eye for choosing his projects carefully — has managed to appear in a steady stream of iconic movies that ensured he remained both highly in-demand and extremely well-respected in the industry. From sixties spy thriller The Ipcress File to nineties family film The Muppet Christmas Carol to playing Alfred in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy in the noughties, Caine has done it all. A world without the actor scarcely bares thinking about.
What happened to Michael Caine?
That’s why I’m delighted to say that, at the time of writing, Michael Caine is very much still with us. On Mar. 14, 2024, the star celebrated his 91st birthday.
Life has changed a lot for Caine over the past 90 years. Not least his name. Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, the son of cook Ellen and fish market porter Maurice Snr. In contrast to many actors of his generation, Caine resisted any attempts to smooth out the working-class London accent that became his signature staple. “I kept my cockney accent in order to let other working-class boys know that if I made it, they could do it too,” he told CNN in 2007.
After so long in the limelight, Caine officially decided to call it quits on his acting career in 2023. On October 13, Caine told BBC’s Today show that he had elected to go out on a high, after appearing in war film The Great Escaper, with late actress Glenda Jackson.
“I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well I am now, because I figured, I’ve had a picture which is — I played the lead and it’s got incredible reviews,” he explained. “The only parts I’m liable to get now are old men, 90-year-old men, and I thought well I might as well leave with all this. I’ve got wonderful reviews. What am I going to do to beat this?”
These days, Caine spends his time enjoying his retirement in his home in London with his wife of 51 years, former actress and model Shakira Baksh (aka Lady Caine). Here’s wishing the Caines all the best for his 91st year!