Sir Michael Caine Announces Retirement After More Than 7 Decades In Film
After weighing whether to retire, Sire Michael Caine says he’s officially hanging it up.
The 90-year-old actor proclaimed as much on Saturday following the recent release of The Great Escaper, a drama about a real-life British Royal Navy veteran escaping his nursing home to attend a D-Day parade. Caine, who has acted since the mid-20th century, said he’s made up his mind for good.
“I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now,” he said on a BBC Radio 4 programme.
“I’ve figured, I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead and it’s got incredible reviews,” he continued. “The only parts I’m likely to get now are old men. … And I thought, well I might as well leave with all this — what have I got to do to beat this?”
Caine recently hinted at the development in an interview with The Telegraph, when the actor revealed he was “sort of” retired. Though the native Londoner has lamented being offered only “grandpa” roles, he also espoused the benefits of this just a few years ago.
“If you’re the star of the movie, you have to get the girl but then they started making pictures which was great for me and people my age, where you didn’t get the girl but you got the part,” he said on “The Jonathan Ross Show” in 2016.
“So I didn’t get the girl,” he continued, “I then won two Academy Awards.”
Caine won Oscars for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999). He continued to serve major productions as a supporting actor in films like Children of Men (2006) and Harry Brown (2009), as well as in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
Caine has left an undeniable mark on cinema.
His first film role was uncredited, but he eventually found major parts in acclaimed movies like Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969) and Get Carter (1971), helping to establish British crime films as a genre.
Caine told BBC Radio 4 that he will spend his retirement focused on writing. He noted that he’s already “written several biographies” and one novel — which he was “quite amazed” was actually published.
“The thing about moviemaking is that you have to get up at 6:30 in the morning, learn your lines in the bloody car and then get there and work until 10 at night,” he told BBC Radio 4. “With writing you don’t have to get out of bed — all you need is a pencil and paper.”
Caine, who has two adult children between first wife Patricia Haines and current spouse Shakira Caine, said he’s “very happy” with his life and “adores” his grandkids. He previously told People that he’s “one of the most family-oriented men you’ll ever meet.”