Michael Caine

Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite on March 14, 1933 in Rotherhithe, London, United Kingdom. He grew up in south London. His father was a fish porter and his mother was a cleaner. After completing Wilson's Grammar School, he started work at the age 16. He was interested in showbz from an early age. He got a job with Peak Films and thereafter a position with the J. Arthur Rank company. In the early 1950s, he had worked for two years in national service, became a member of the Queens Royal Regiment and the Royal Fusiliers and spended time in Germany and Korea while in the military. After completing his service, he worked in regional theater and took odd jobs to make ends meet. He took his new last name from the Humphrey Bogart classic "The Caine Mutiny" released in 1954. He made his film debut in 1956's "A Hill in Korea". His breakthrough was 1964's Zulu, in which he used his Cockney accent to play a British officer role in the film about a clash between the Zulu people and the British military. After this breakout role, he played a spy in "The Ipcress File" in 1965, based on the book by Len Deighton and was nominated for a BAFTA. In 1966, he performed as the ultimate ladies' man in Alfie. The film helped introduce him to American audiences and brought him his first Academy Award nomination. In 1972, he appeared against legendary actor Laurence Olivier in Sleuth. He starred with friend Sean Connery in the adventure drama The Man Who Would Be King in 1975. Then he appeared in the Neil Simon ensemble comedy California Suite in 1978 with Jane Fonda, Alan Alda and Maggie Smith. Continuing to work steadily in the 1970s and 1980s, his roles were a perfect mix of high and low, as he appeared in such films The Swarm (1978), Ashanti (1979), The Island (1980) and Jaws: The Revenge (1987) while also hitting the big screen in such films as A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Dressed to Kill (1980). He also did a strong performance in Educating Rita (1983) and his first Academy Award was a result of his stellar work in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). He earned positive reviews for 1998's Little Voice, playing a ruthless. After that he gave another great performance in "The Cider House Rules", based on the John Irving novel. He appeared as a doctor who runs a Maine orphanage and develops a close bond with one of his wards. He earned his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2002, he took on the role of Thomas Fowler in The Quiet American, for which he took home a slew of awards and was nominated for even more. Three years later, he began a relationship with director Christopher Nolan and appeared in several of Nolan's blockbuster films, including Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014).