Biography and Wiki
Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite on March 14, 1933, in St. Olive Bermondsey, London. His father was a fish porter, and his mother was a charlady. Caine's early life was marked by evacuation during the war and later national service in Korea. He began his acting career on stage and television before rising to prominence in the film industry.
Occupation | Autobiographer |
---|---|
Date of Birth | 14 March 1933 |
Age | 92 Years |
Birth Place | Rotherhithe, London, England |
Horoscope | Pisces |
Country | England |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about his current height and weight are not widely reported, Michael Caine is generally known to be around 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall. However, these measurements may have changed slightly over the years.
Height | 6 feet 2 inches |
Weight | |
Body Measurements | |
Eye Color | |
Hair Color |
Dating & Relationship Status
Michael Caine has been married twice: first to Patricia Haines from 1955 to 1962, and then to Shakira Baksh since 1973. He has three children from his marriages.
His father was from a Catholic Irish Traveller family background. Caine was raised in his mother's Protestant faith. He had a younger brother, Stanley (1935–2013), who also became an actor, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He grew up in London's Southwark district; during the Second World War, he was evacuated 100 mi to North Runcton, Norfolk, where he made his acting debut at the village school and had a pet horse called Lottie.
After the war, Caine's father was demobilised and the family were rehoused by the council in Marshall Gardens in London's Elephant and Castle area, where they lived in a prefabricated house made in Canada as much of London's housing stock had been destroyed during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941. Caine later wrote in his autobiography, "The prefabs, as they were known, were intended to be temporary homes while London was reconstructed, but we ended up living there for eighteen years—and for us, after a cramped flat with an outside toilet, it was luxury."
At the age of 10, Caine acted in a school play as the father of the ugly sisters in Cinderella. His trousers' zipper was undone, prompting the audience to laugh, which inspired him to pursue an acting career. In 1944, he passed his eleven-plus examination, winning a scholarship to Hackney Downs School. After a year there, he moved to Wilson's School in Camberwell, which he left at age 16 after gaining School Certificates in six subjects. He then worked briefly as a filing clerk and messenger for a film company in Victoria and film producer Jay Lewis on Wardour Street.
Caine's film debut was an uncredited walk-on role in Morning Departure (1950). A few years later in Horsham, Sussex, he responded to an advertisement in The Stage for an assistant stage manager who would also perform bit parts for the Horsham-based Westminster Repertory Company, who were performing at the Carfax Electric Theatre. Adopting the stage name "Michael White", in July 1953 he was cast as the drunkard Hindley in the company's production of Wuthering Heights. He moved to the Lowestoft Repertory Company in Suffolk for a year when he was 21. It was here that he met his first wife, Patricia Haines. He has described the first nine years of his career as "really, really brutal" as well as "more like purgatory than paradise". He appeared in nine plays during his time at the Lowestoft Rep at the Arcadia Theatre with Jackson Stanley's Standard Players.
Caine also starred in multiple comedies during this time, including playing Austin's father in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). In 2003 he co-starred with Robert Duvall, and Haley Joel Osment in the family comedy Secondhand Lions. Caine played family elder Henry Lair in the 2004 film Around the Bend. Also in 2005, he played as Isabel's (Nicole Kidman) father in Bewitched alongside Will Ferrell and Shirley MacLaine. In 2005, he was cast as Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth in Batman Begins, the first film in the new Batman film series known as The Dark Knight Trilogy. In 2006, he appeared in Alfonso Cuaron's acclaimed dystopian drama Children of Men alongside Clive Owen and Julianne Moore as well as Nolan's mystery thriller The Prestige starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. In 2007 he appeared in Flawless, and in 2008 and 2012 he reprised his role as Alfred in Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed Batman sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises as well as starring in the British drama Is Anybody There?, which explores the final days of life. It was reported by Empire magazine that Caine had said that Harry Brown (released on 13 November 2009) would be his last lead role. Caine later clarified that he had no intention of retiring, stating that "You don't retire in this business; the business retires you."
Caine appeared in Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller Inception as Prof. Stephen Miles, Cobb's (Leonardo DiCaprio) mentor and father-in-law. The film was a financial and critical success, earning 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. He voiced Finn McMissile in Pixar's 2011 film Cars 2 and also voiced a supporting role in the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet. He also starred in the 2012 film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, as Josh Hutcherson's character's grandfather; the film also featured Dwayne Johnson and Vanessa Hudgens. Caine reprised his role as Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman sequel The Dark Knight Rises, which was released in July 2012. Caine later called The Dark Knight Trilogy, "one of the greatest things I have done in my life." In 2013, Caine appeared in the heist thriller Now You See Me starring alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Morgan Freeman. Caine played the role of Arthur Tressler, an insurance magnate and the Four Horsemen's sponsor. The film, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, was a financial success at the box office and spawned a sequel, Now You See Me 2 (2016). He appeared in Nolan's 2014 science-fiction film Interstellar as Professor Brand, a high-ranking NASA scientist, ideator of Plan A, former mentor of Cooper and father of Amelia. The film starred Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain. In 2015, Caine co-starred in Matthew Vaughn's action spy comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service starring Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, and Samuel L. Jackson.
The comedy sketch show Harry Enfield's Television Programme included a series of sketches in which Paul Whitehouse played a character called Michael Paine; an amalgam of previous Michael Caine impressions, who in a reference to Caine's character Harry Palmer from The Ipcress File wears oversized, thick-rimmed glasses and a trench coat. He introduces himself with the line, "My name is Michael Paine, and I am a nosy neighbour" and in a spoof of the stakeout at the beginning of The Ipcress File, recounts to the camera the 'suspiciously' mundane behaviour of his neighbours, before saying, "Not a lot of people know that I know that". Caine's Harry Palmer character (with the glasses, the girls, and disregard for authority) was among the many British pop cultural influences for Mike Myers' Austin Powers films. At Myers' request, Caine himself starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), with his portrayal of Nigel Powers, father of Austin Powers, spoofing Harry Palmer.
Caine was married to actress Patricia Haines from 1954 to 1958. They had a daughter, Dominique (who was named after the heroine of Ayn Rand's novel, The Fountainhead). He dated Edina Ronay, Nancy Sinatra, Natalie Wood, Candice Bergen, Bianca Jagger, Jill St. John, Élisabeth Ercy and Françoise Pascal. Caine has been married to actress and model Shakira Baksh since 8 January 1973. They met after Caine saw her 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. Baksh is a Muslim while Caine is a Christian. He reflected in 2009, "My wife is a Muslim and she does Muslim stuff; I'm a Christian and I do Christian stuff, and no questions ever come up. The media view of Muslims is different from mine, which is very benign and peaceful".
Some time after his mother died, Caine and his younger brother, Stanley, learned they had an elder half-brother named David. He suffered from severe epilepsy and had been kept in Cane Hill Mental Hospital his entire life. Although their mother regularly visited her first son in the hospital, even her husband did not know the child existed. David died in 1992.
Caine is a fan of chill-out music, and he released a compilation CD called Cained in 2007 on the UMTV record label. He met his good friend Elton John and was discussing musical tastes, when Caine said that he had been creating chillout mix tapes as an amateur for years. Caine and Elton John had also appeared on the same episode of Parkinson, where they sang an impromptu version of the pub tune "Knees Up Mother Brown". Also in music, Caine provided vocal samples for the ska-pop band Madness for their 1984 hit "Michael Caine", as his daughter was a fan. He has sung in film roles as well, including Little Voice and for the 1992 musical film The Muppet Christmas Carol.
In a 2010 Classic FM interview, Caine said that he had requested a doctor to deliberately give his father a fatal overdose when he was dying from liver cancer in 1955 and endorsed voluntary euthanasia.
Caine was appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 Birthday Honours, and in the 2000 Birthday Honours he was knighted (as Sir Maurice Micklewhite, CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his contribution to cinema. In a tribute to his background, he stated: "I was named after my father and I was knighted in his name because I love my father. I always kept my real name—I'm a very private and family-orientated person." In 2000 he received a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award.
Parents | |
Husband | Patricia Haines (m. 1954-1958) Shakira Baksh (m. 8 January 1973) |
Sibling | |
Children |
Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Michael Caine's net worth is estimated to be around $75 million. His wealth is derived not only from his extensive film career, which includes over 150 films grossing billions at the box office, but also from investments in real estate, book deals, and other business ventures.
His yearly earnings vary, as he now selects roles carefully, ensuring they align with his stature and financial goals. Caine can earn between $1 million to $5 million per year, depending on the projects he takes on.
Several of Caine's classic films have been remade, including The Italian Job, Get Carter, Alfie and Sleuth. Caine appeared in Get Carter the 2000 American action thriller film directed by Stephen Kay; a remake of his 1971 film Get Carter, in which a younger Michael Caine played the title role. Here in the 2000 remake, Caine's role was originally relegated to a one-scene cameo appearance, which he agreed to do as a favor to his friend Sylvester Stallone. However, after a test screening, additional scenes were scripted and shot to expand his role. The film was released in the U.S. on 6 October 2000. Critical reaction was negative, and the film flopped at the box office, with worldwide earnings of approximately only $19 million against a production budget of nearly $64 million. Stallone said: "Believe it or not, I think Get Carter was really underrated. That was a big disappointment. I learned the hard way that [remakes], even if you do it better than the original, there’s a tremendous nostalgia attached to the original. And quite often they’re not done as well." In the 2007 remake of Sleuth, Caine took over the role Laurence Olivier played in the 1972 version and Jude Law played Caine's original role. Caine is one of the few actors to have played a starring role in two versions of the same film. In an interview with CNN, Law spoke of his admiration for Caine: "I learned so much just from watching how he monitored his performance, and also how little he has to do. He's a master technician and sometimes he was doing stuff I didn't see, I couldn't register. I'd go back and watch it on the monitor, it was like 'Oh my God, the amount of variety he's put in there is breathtaking".
Caine has often been outspoken about his political views, referring to himself as a "left-wing Tory" influenced by both his working class background and Korean War service. He left the United Kingdom for the United States in the late 1970s, citing the income tax levied on top earners by the Labour government of James Callaghan, which then stood at 83%. He lived in Beverly Hills during that time, but returned to the UK eight years later when taxes had been lowered by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher:
"I realised that's not a socialist country, it's a communist country without a dictator, so I left and I was never going to come back. Maggie Thatcher came in and put the taxes back down and in the end, you know, you don't mind paying tax. What am I going to do? Not pay tax and drive around in a Rolls-Royce, with cripples begging on the street like you see in some countries?"
In 2009, Caine publicly criticised the Labour government of Gordon Brown for its new 50% income tax rate on top earners and threatened to return to the United States if his taxes were increased further. During the run up to the 2010 general election, Caine publicly endorsed the Conservative Party and appeared with then-party leader David Cameron for the launch of a civilian non-compulsory "National Service" for sixteen-year-olds, although Caine stated he had previously supported New Labour under the leadership of Tony Blair in 1997. In July 2014, Caine was reported to have been a celebrity investor in a tax avoidance scheme called Liberty. In November 2014, Caine described the proposed mansion tax by then Labour leader Ed Miliband as "preposterous and silly".
Career, Business, and Investments
Michael Caine's career is marked by iconic roles in films like "Zulu" (1964), "The Ipcress File" (1965), "Alfie" (1966), "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986), and "The Cider House Rules" (1999). He has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to cinema.
Apart from acting, Caine has also been involved in various business ventures, including real estate investments. His literary contributions include autobiographies that have contributed significantly to his wealth.
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is an English retired actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over a career that spanned eight decades and is considered a British cultural icon. He has received numerous awards including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide. Caine is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades. In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Often playing a Cockney, Caine made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), The Italian Job (1969), and Battle of Britain (1969). During this time he established a distinctive visual style wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses combined with sharp suits and a laconic vocal delivery; he was recognised as a style icon of the 1960s. He solidified his stardom with roles in Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and A Bridge Too Far (1977).
Caine's roles as effete-seeming aristocrats were to contrast with his next projects, in which he was to become notable for using a regional accent, rather than the Received Pronunciation then considered proper for film actors. At that time his working-class Cockney speech stood out to American and British audiences alike, as did the Beatles' Liverpudlian accents. Zulu was followed by two of Caine's best-known roles: the rough-edged petty-crook-turned-spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965) and the titular womanising young Cockney in Alfie (1966). In a 2016 interview Caine cited Alfie as his favourite film of his career, saying, "it made me a star in America as well, and it was my first nomination for an Academy Award". He went on to play Harry Palmer in a further four films, Funeral in Berlin (1966), Billion Dollar Brain (1967), Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996). Caine made his first film in Hollywood in 1966, after an invitation from Shirley MacLaine to play opposite her in Gambit. During the first two weeks, whilst staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he met long-term friends John Wayne and agent "Swifty" Lazar. Wayne was a fan of Caine's performance in Alfie and suggested to Caine, "Speak slow and speak low". Caine was always grateful for that advice. Caine starred in the film The Magus (1968) which, although BAFTA-nominated for Best Cinematography, failed at the box office. Caine starred in the 1969 comedy caper film The Italian Job as Charlie Croker, the leader of a Cockney criminal gang released from prison with the intention of doing a "big job" in Italy to steal gold bullion from an armoured security truck. One of the most celebrated roles of his career, in a 2002 poll his line "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" was voted the second-funniest line in film (after "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy" from Monty Python's Life of Brian), and favourite one-liner in a 2003 poll of 1,000 film fans. Culminating in a cliffhanger, The Italian Job has one of the most discussed end scenes in film; what happened to the coachload of gold teetering over the edge of a cliff has been debated in the decades since the film was released.
After working on The Italian Job with Noël Coward, and a role as RAF fighter pilot squadron leader Canfield in the all-star cast of Battle of Britain (both 1969), Caine played the lead in Get Carter (1971), a British gangster film. Caine also starred in a comedy thriller, Pulp (1972). Caine continued with successes including Sleuth (1972) opposite Laurence Olivier, and John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (1975) co-starring Sean Connery, which received widespread acclaim. The Times applauded the "lovely double act of Caine and Connery, clowning to their doom", while Huston paid tribute to Caine's improvisation as an actor: "Michael is one of the most intelligent men among the artists I've known. I don't particularly care to throw the ball to an actor and let him improvise, but with Michael it's different. I just let him get on with it." In 1974, Caine appeared in The Black Windmill, co-starring Donald Pleasence.
A parody of Caine appears in the animated series Ugly Americans, in the episode "The Dork Knight", which also parodies the film The Dark Knight. In the episode, Caine appears as himself, portrayed in the light of his Alfred Pennyworth interpretation, and constantly annoys the protagonists with endless anecdotes of his career.
The 2010 television series The Trip, starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, featured improvised scenes in which the two leads argue over who can do the better Michael Caine impression. Among the lines they repeat in their attempts to outdo each other are, "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" and, "She was only sixteen years old"—from The Italian Job and Get Carter, respectively. Coogan and Brydon later did their impressions from a balcony at the Royal Albert Hall during a celebration of Caine's work, only to be interrupted by the real Caine informing them that they were out of shape: "For me, it's a full-time job."
Proud of his working-class roots, Caine has discussed the opportunities his film career gave him: "I got to play football with Pelé, for God's sake. And I danced with Bob Fosse." He also became close friends with John Lennon, stating: "With John and I it was a case of bonding because we were both working class and we shared a sense of humour. We were pretending we weren't who people thought we were." His closest friends included two James Bond actors, Sean Connery and Roger Moore.
Caine has written four memoirs across several decades. He published the first, What's It All About?, in 1992. Its title is a quote from the title song from his 1966 hit film Alfie. The book was reviewed negatively in The New York Times, which called it an "archetypal show-business memoir" that was engaging but tainted by the book's "name-dropping, the sexual boasting, the sensitivity to slights". His second memoir, The Elephant to Hollywood, was published in 2010. Its title refers to his journey from working-class roots in the Elephant and Castle neighborhood of London to Hollywood success. Janet Maslin of The New York Times reviewed it positively, calling Caine a "charming raconteur" and "wittily self-deprecating". His third memoir, Blowing the Bloody Doors Off, was published in 2018. Its title references an iconic quote from his 1969 hit film The Italian Job. His fourth memoir, Don't Look Back, You'll Trip Over: My Guide to Life, was published in 2024.
Social Network
Michael Caine is not particularly active on social media platforms, preferring to maintain a private life. However, his work and legacy are widely discussed and celebrated across various media outlets and fan communities.
Caine has said that he would like to see the return of national service in Britain, to help combat youth violence, stating: "I'm just saying, put them in the Army for six months. You're there to learn how to defend your country. You belong to the country. Then, when you come out, you have a sense of belonging, rather than a sense of violence."
When his career took him to London in 1954 after his provincial apprenticeship, his agent informed him that there was already a Michael White performing as an actor in London and that he had to come up with a new name immediately. Speaking to his agent from a telephone booth in Leicester Square, London, he looked around for inspiration, noted that The Caine Mutiny was being shown at the Odeon Cinema, and decided to change his name to "Michael Caine". He joked on television in 1987 that, had a tree partly blocking his view been a few feet to the left, he might have been called "Michael Mutiny". He also later joked in interviews that, had he looked the other way, he would have ended up as "Michael One Hundred and One Dalmatians". In 1958, Caine played the minor role of a court orderly in a BBC Television adaptation of the story, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.
When this play moved to the Criterion in Piccadilly with Michael Codron directing, he was visited backstage by Stanley Baker, one of the four stars in Caine's first film, A Hill in Korea, who told him about the part of a Cockney private in his upcoming film Zulu, a film Baker was producing and starring in. Baker told Caine to meet the director, Cy Endfield, who informed him that he already had given the part to James Booth, a fellow Cockney who was Caine's friend, because he "looked more Cockney" than Caine did. Endfield then told the 6'2" Caine that he did not look like a Cockney but like an officer, and offered him a screen test for the role of a snobbish, upper class officer after Caine assured him that he could do a posh accent. Caine believes Endfield offered him, a Cockney, the role of an aristocrat because, being American, he did not have the endemic British class-prejudice. Though he tested poorly, Endfield gave him the part that would make him a film star.
Location shooting for Zulu took place in Natal, South Africa, for 14 weeks in 1963. According to his 2010 autobiography The Elephant to Hollywood, Caine had been signed to a seven-year contract by Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Films was distributing Zulu. After the return of the cast to England and the completion of the film, Levine released him from the contract, telling him, "I know you're not, but you gotta face the fact that you look like a queer on screen." Levine gave his contract to his Zulu co-star James Booth. Subsequently, Caine's agent got him cast in the BBC production Hamlet at Elsinore (1964) as Horatio, in support of Christopher Plummer's Hamlet. Horatio was the only classical role which Caine, who had never received dramatic training, would ever play. Caine wrote, "...I decided that if my on-screen appearance was going to be an issue, then I would use it to bring out all Horatio's ambiguous sexuality."
In the 1990s, Caine found good parts harder to come by. He played the mysterious bartender Mike in Mr. Destiny in 1990 and appeared with Roger Moore in Bullseye! (1990).He played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). Having been chosen by Brian Henson, Caine stated: "I'm going to play this movie like I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink, I will never do anything Muppety. I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me." He played the beleaguered stage director Lloyd Fellowes in the film adaptation of Noises Off (1992). He also played a villain in the Steven Seagal film On Deadly Ground (1994). He was starred two straight to video Harry Palmer sequels and a few television films.
In May 2019, Caine was cast as Sir Michael Crosby, a British Intelligence officer, in Christopher Nolan's Tenet (2020). The film starred John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh. The film received an American release during the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020 after being delayed multiple times and became a box office disappointment, despite receiving positive reviews. Caine also appeared in the children's fantasy film, Come Away (2020) starring Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews, with critics praising its performances and lavish production design. In the 2021 film Twist, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist set in the present day, Caine plays Fagin. In interviews promoting the 2021 film Best Sellers, Caine suggested that he would not make another film, citing difficulty in walking and his new interest in novel-writing developed during the COVID-19 lockdowns. However, his representatives told Variety that he was not retiring from acting. In 2022, Caine filmed The Great Escaper, a British-French feature film starring Caine and Glenda Jackson, based on the true-life story of a British World War II veteran who 'broke out' of his nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France, in June 2014. The film was released on 6 October 2023.
Caine later spoke of how Sellers used his impression of him as his answering machine message in the 1970s: "I called Peter one day, he wasn't in. And there was me saying, 'My name is Michael Caine. I just want you to know that Peter Sellers is not in. Not many people know that.' He invented that 'not many people know that.' And then everybody who rang him, they got me saying, 'Not many people know that. Over the years Caine himself had parodied his catchphrase and his "interesting facts", and has imitated others' impressions of him. In an interview with Michael Parkinson in 2007, Caine commented on the impersonations of his voice, "I can do it. 'Hello. My name is Michael Caine. Not many people know that.' I sound like a bloody moron. You know where they've got me now? On birthday cards. 'It's your birthday today. Not many people know that'. Now they've got me on Satellite navigation. It's me going, 'take the second turn on the right, and you'll wind up right in the shit. In 1983, Caine used his "not a lot of people know that" phrase as a joke in the film Educating Rita.
Education
Details about Caine's formal education are limited, but he has spoken about his early life and the influences that shaped his decision to pursue acting. His experiences during national service and his early days in theater provided valuable training for his acting career.
Caine quit his 80-a-day smoking habit in the early 1970s after a lecture from Tony Curtis. He is a supporter of the football club, Chelsea FC. Caine is also a fan of cricket. This was alluded to by Gary Oldman, who acted with Caine in The Dark Knight Rises, when he talked about Caine's acting methods: "It's, 'Take one'. He got it. 'Take two', got it. 'Take three', got it. He's just on the money. ... He doesn't fuck around because he wants to get back to cricket."
Caine voted in favour of Brexit in the 2016 European Referendum, stating he would rather be a "poor master than a rich servant". He said he was a reluctant Leaver; "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out."