Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine, CBE (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr.; March 14, 1933) is an English actor, film producer and author. He has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning over 60 years and is considered a British film icon. Known for his cockney accent, Caine was born in south-east London.

He made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films, including Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), Alfie (1966), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, The Italian Job (1969) and Battle of Britain (1969). Other roles in the 1960s include Otto Preminger‘s Hurry Sundown (1967), with Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway. His roles in the 1970s included Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), Joseph L. Mankiewicz‘s final film Sleuth (1972), for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination; John Huston‘s The Man Who Would Be King (1975), with Sean Connery; John Sturges‘s The Eagle Has Landed (1976), with Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasance, and Jenny Agutter; A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Swarm (1978), with Olivia de Havilland, and Beyond Poseidon Adventure (1979), with Sally Field, Telly Savalas, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Shirley Knight, Slim Pickens, Angela Cartwright, Mark Harmon, Shirley Jones, and Karl Malden.

He achieved some of his greatest critical success in the 1980s, with with Educating Rita (1983), earning him the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. In he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Woody Allen‘s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), with Mia Farrow, Barbra Hershey, Diane Wiest, Margaret O’Sullivan, Carrie Fisher, and Max von Sydow. Other notable films during this period include Brian De Palma‘s Dressed to Kill (1980), with Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, and Keith Gordon; The Island (1980), with David Warner; Oliver Stone‘s The Hand (1981), Escape to Victory (1981), with Sylvester Stallone, von Sydow, and Pelé; Sydney Lumet’s Deathtrap (1982), with Dyan Cannon and Christopher Reeve; The Jigsaw Man (1983), with Lawrence Oliver; Stanley Donen‘s Blame It on Rio (1984), with Joseph Bologna, Michelle Johnson, Valerie Harper, Demi Moore, and José Lewgoy; Sweet Liberty (1986), with Alan Alda (who also directed), Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lois Chiles, Lise Hilboldt, Lillian Gish, and Larry Shue, Neil Jordan‘s Mona Lisa (1986), with Hoskins and Cathy Tyson; Half Moon Street (1986), with Sigourney Weaver; The Fourth Protocol (1987), with Pierce Brosnan; Without a Clue (1988), with Ben Kingsley; and Frank Oz‘s Dirty Rotten Scoundrel’s (1988), with Steve Martin, Glenne Headly, Anton Rodgers, and Barbara Harris.

Caine played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). This was his first starring role in several years, which led to a career resurgence in the late 1990s, receiving his second Golden Globe Award for his performance in Little Voice (1998), with Jane Horrocks, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent, and Ewan McGregorand his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Lasse Hallström’s The Cider House Rules (1999), with Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo, Paul Rudd, Jane Alexander, Kathy Baker, Kieran Culkin, Heavy D, Kate Nelligan, and Erykah Badu. Other notable film roles at the time include Peter Bogdanovich‘s Noise Off… (1992), Blue Ice (1992), with Sean Young and Ian Holm; Bob Rafelson‘s Blood and Wine (1996), with Jack Nicholson and Judy Davis; It All Came True (1998), with James Spader, Maggie Smith, Polly Walker, Buck Henry, Sam Shepard, Frank Whaley, and Marcia Gay Harden.

Caine played Nigel Powers (Austin Powers father) in the 2002 parody Austin Powers in Goldmember, and Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005, 2008, 2012) with Christian Bale Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Tom Hardy, and Marion Cotillard. He appeared in several other of Nolan’s films, including The Prestige (2006), with Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo, Andy Serkis, Rebecca Hall, and David Bowie; Inception (2010), with Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cotillard, Elliot Page, Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Pete Postlethwaite; Interstellar (2014), with Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, and Matt Damon; and Tenet (2020), with John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, and Kenneth Branagh.

Caine also appeared in Miss Congeniality (2000), with Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, William Shatner, Ernie Hudson, and Candice Bergen; Gore Verbinski’s The Weather Man (2005), with Nicolas Cage; Alfonso Cuarón‘s Children of Men (2006), with Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Chiwetel Ejiofor; and Matthew Vaughn’s action comedy film Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015). As of February 2017, films which he has starred in have grossed over $3.5 billion domestically and over $7.8 billion worldwide. Caine is ranked as the twentieth-highest-grossing box office star.

Caine is one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s, the other one being Jack Nicholson; Laurence Olivier was also nominated for an acting Academy Award in five different decades, beginning in 1939 and ending in 1978. Caine appeared in seven films that featured in the British Film Institute’s 100 greatest British films of the 20th century. In 2000, Caine received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to cinema.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

The Morning Departure (1946) – directed by Harold Clayton – TV movie – uncredited
Panic in the Parlor (1956) – directed by Gordon Parry – uncredited
A Hill in Korea (1956) – directed by Julian Amyes
Blood Money (1957) – directed by Ralph Nelson -TV movie
The Steel Bayonet (1957) – directed by Michael Carreras – uncredited
How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957) – directed by Nigel Patrick
Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) – directed by Lewis Gilbert – uncredited
A Woman of Mystery (1958) – directed by Ernest Morris – uncredited
The Key (1958) – directed by Carol Reed – uncredited
Blind Spot (1958) – directed by Peter Maxwell
The Two-Headed Spy (1958) – directed by Andre DeToth
Passport to Shame (1958) – directed by Alvin Rakoff – Room 43 – uncredited
Danger Within (1959) – directed by Don Chaffey – aka Breakout – uncredited
Foxhole in Cairo (1960) – directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
The Bulldog Breed (1960) – directed by Robert Asher – uncredited
The Compartment (1961) – directed by John McGrath – TV movie
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) – directed by Val Guest – uncredited
Solo for Sparrow (1962) – directed by Gordon Flemyng
The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963) – directed by Cliff Owen – uncredited
Zulu (1964) – directed by Cy Endfield
Hamlet at Elsinore (1964) – directed by Philip Saville – TV movie
The Ipcress File (1965) – directed by Sidney J. Furie
Alfie (1966) – directed by Lewis Gilbert
The Wrong Box (1966) – directed by Bryan Forbes
Gambit (1966) – directed by Ronald Neame
Funeral in Berlin (1966) – directed by Guy Hamilton
Hurry Sundown (1967) – directed by Otto Preminger
Woman Times Seven (1967) – directed by Vittorio De Sica
Billion Dollar Brain (1967) – directed by Ken Russell
Deadfall (1968) – directed by Bryan Forbes
The Magus (1968) – directed by Guy Green
Play Dirty (1969) – directed by Andre DeToth
Male of the Species (1969) – directed by Charles Jarrott & Anthony Page – TV movie
The Italian Job (1969) – directed by Peter Collinson
Battle of Britain (1969) – directed by Guy Hamilton
Too Late the Hero (1970) – directed by Robert Aldrich
Simon Simon (1970) – directed by Graham Stark – short
The Last Valley (1971) – directed by James Clavell
Get Carter (1971) – directed by Mike Hodges
Kidnapped (1971) – directed by Delbert Mann
X, Y, and Zee (1972) – directed by Brian G. Hutton
Pulp (1972) – directed by Mike Hodges
Sleuth (1972) – directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
The Black Windmill (1974) – directed by Don Siegel
The Marseille Contract (1974) – directed by Robert Parrish
The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) – directed by Ralph Nelson
The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) – directed by Joseph Losey
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) – directed by John Huston
Peeper (1975) – directed by Peter Hyams
Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976) – directed by Mark Rydell
The Eagle Has Landed (1976) – directed by John Sturges
A Bridge Too Far (1977) – directed by Richard Attenborough
Silver Bears (1978) – directed by Ivan Passer
The Swarm (1978) – directed by Irwin Allen
California Suite (1978) – directed by Herbert Ross
Ashanti (1979) – directed by Richard Fleischer
Beyond Poseidon Adventure (1979) – directed by Irwin Allen
The Island (1980) – directed by Michael Ritchie
Dressed to Kill (1980) – directed by Brian De Palma
The Hand (1981) – directed by Oliver Stone
Escape to Victory (1981) – directed by John Huston
Deathtrap (1982) – directed by Sidney Lumet
Educating Rita (1983) – directed by Lewis Gilbert
The Honorary Consul (1983) – directed by John Mackenzie
The Jigsaw Man (1983) – directed by Terence Young
Blame It on Rio (1984) – directed by Stanley Donen
Water (1985) – directed by Dick Clement
The Holcroft Covenant (1985) – directed by John Frankenheimer
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) – directed by Woody Allen
Sweet Liberty (1986) – directed by Alan Alda
Mona Lisa (1986) – directed by Neil Jordan
Half Moon Street (1986) – directed by Bob Swaim
The Whistle Blower (1986) – directed by Simon Langton
The Fourth Protocol (1987) – directed by John Mackenzie
Jaws the Revenge (1987) – directed by Joseph Sargent
Surrender (1987) – directed by Jerry Belson
Without a Clue (1988) – directed by Thom Eberhardt
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) – directed by Frank Oz
Jekyll & Hyde (1990) – directed by David Wickes – TV movie
A Shock to the System (1990) – directed by Jan Egleson
Mr. Destiny (1990) – directed by James Orr
Bullseye! (1990) – directed by Michael Winner
Noises Off… (1992) – directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Blue Ice (1992) – directed by Russell Mulcahy
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)* – directed by Brian Henson
On Deadly Ground (1994) – directed by Steven Seagal
World War II: When Lions Roared (1994) – directed by Joseph Sargent – miniseries
Bullet to Beijing (1995) – directed by George Mihalka – TV movie
Midnight in St. Petersburg (1996) – directed by Douglas Jackson – TV movie
Blood and Wine (1996) – directed by Bob Rafelson
Mandela and de Klerk (1997) – directed by Joseph Sargent – TV movie
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997) – directed by Rod Hardy – miniseries
Shadow Run (1998) – directed by
Geoffrey Reeve
Little Voice (1998) – directed by Mark Herman
Curtain Call (1998) – directed by Peter Yates
The Cider House Rules (1999) – directed by Lasse Hallström
The Debtors (1999) – directed by Evi Quaid
Quills (2000) – directed by Philip Kaufman
Shiner (2000) – directed by John Irvin
Get Carter (2000) – directed by Stephen Kay
Miss Congeniality (2000) – directed by Donald Petrie
Last Orders (2001) – directed by Fred Schepisi
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)* – directed by Jay Roach
The Quiet American (2002) – directed by Phillip Noyce
Quicksand (2003) – directed by John Mackenzie – straight-to-video
The Actors (2003) – directed by Conor McPherson
Secondhand Lions (2003) – directed by Tim McCanlies
The Statement (2003) – directed by Norman Jewison
Around the Bend (2004) – directed by Jordan Roberts
Batman Begins (2005)* – directed by Christopher Nolan
Bewitched (2005) – directed by Nora Ephron
The Weather Man (2005) – directed by Gore Verbinski
Children of Men (2006)* – directed by Alfonso Cuarón
The Prestige (2006) – directed by Christopher Nolan
Flawless (2007) – directed by Michael Radford
Sleuth (2007) – directed by Kenneth Branagh
The Dark Knight (2008)* – directed by Christopher Nolan
Is Anybody There? (2008) – directed by John Crowley
Harry Brown (2009) – directed by Daniel Barber
Inception (2010)* – directed by Christopher Nolan
Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)* – directed by Kelly Asbury
Cars 2 (2011)* – directed by John Lasseter
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) – directed by Brad Peyton
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)* – directed by Christopher Nolan
Now You See Me (2013) – directed by Louis Leterrier
Mr. Morgan’s Last Love (2013) – directed by Sandra Nettelbeck
Stonehearst Asylum (2014) – directed by Brad Anderson
Interstellar (2014) – directed by Christopher Nolan
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)* – directed by Matthew Vaughn
Youth (2015) – directed by Paolo Sorrentino
The Last Witch Hunter (2015) – directed by Breck Eisner
Now You See Me 2 (2016) – directed by Jon M. Chu
Going in Style (2017) – directed by Zach Braff
Dunkirk (2017)* – directed by Christopher Nolan – uncredited
Dear Dictator (2018) – directed by Lisa Addario & Joe Syracuse
Sherlock Gnomes (2018) – directed by John Stevenson
King of Thieves (2018) – directed by James Marsh
Come Away (2020) – directed by Brenda Chapman
Four Kids and It (2020) – directed by Andy De Emmony
Tenet (2020) directed by Christopher Nolan
Twist (2021) – directed by Martin Owen
Best Sellers (2021) – directed by Lina Roessler

Medieval (2022) – directed by Petr Jákl
The Great Escaper (2023) – directed by Oliver Parker

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