It would be difficult to cite a résumé of acting credits more wide-ranging than Michael Caine’s. For more than 70 years, he’s been bringing life to iconic characters, from Lt. Bromhead in Zulu to Ebenezer Scrooge in A Muppet Christmas Carol to every sassy older British character in basically every Christopher Nolan movie. He’s an icon and a legend, as ubiquitous in Hollywood as the sun itself, if it had a Cockney accent.
But there comes a time in any sufficiently long life when it’s appropriate to take a rest and not keep going. Caine is well on his way to being 91 years old, and, following the release of his latest film, The Great Escaper, he’s decided to hang it up.
“I keep saying I’m going to retire,” he told BBC 4 in a recent interview. “Well, I am now.” The reasons are multifaceted, but they include really enjoying staying in bed and not wanting to play old men for the rest of his life. “The thing about movie-making,” he explained, “ 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.
But retiring from acting doesn’t mean that Caine intends to stop working altogether. “With writing,” he continued,” you don’t have to get out of bed — all you need is pencil and paper and you can start!”
Helpfully, Caine has enjoyed a successful writing career over the last few years. In addition to his memoirs, Blowing the Bloody Doors Off (2018), The Elephant to Hollywood (2010), and What’s It All About? (1992), his first original novel, Deadly Game, hit shelves this year.
This isn’t the first time that Caine — born Maurice Micklewhite — has informed the public that he was finished with acting. In 2021, the award-winning performer announced that he was done working in front of the camera, only to walk back his statements not long after. Hopefully, the right part will coax him back to set. Everyone is entitled to kick back once they hit nonagenarian status, but still – it’s hard to imagine show business without him.