In the ’90s, one of the shelves of a major video store chain in London – it didn’t need more – was devoted to “films not featuring Michael Caine.” It’s an urban legend, a joke among moviegoers, but it may be true, or almost true. All in all, Caine made 140 fiction films during his 67 years in the business., no less. Many of them turned out to be extraordinary films or films in which he did extraordinary work. ‘Ipcress’ (1965), ‘Alfie’ (1966), ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ (1975), ‘Dressed to Kill’ (1980), ‘Dead American’ (2002); There are so many memorable roles that it’s almost ridiculous to list them. But those like him who grew up in absolute poverty tend to place too much emphasis on money, and so there’s a lot of waste material in his filmography that comes from just the check; He agreed to act in productions such as ‘Jaws Revenge’ (1987) without reading the script because they promised to pay him one and a half million dollars for a week’s work in the Caribbean. “I didn’t see it, but I know it was terrible,” he later said of it. “But thanks to him, I saw the house I bought, it’s amazing.”. These shootings prevented her from receiving the Oscar she received for her work in ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’ (1986). Later, thanks to ‘The Cider House Rules’ (2000), the winner accepted it in person.
Productions directed by John Huston and Steven Seagal
Despite these statuettes (and the four others for which he was nominated), Caine may not have become the most famous or prestigious British actor in history; He’s been surpassed by at least Charles Chaplin and Cary Grant, and he certainly doesn’t care. He always seemed uninterested in making even one extra gesture in front of the camera or turning his career into a master plan for personal ingenuity. Yes, he’s played a lot of complicated men, but he’s also been chased by killer bees in ‘The Swarm’ (1978) or by his own hand in ‘The Hand’ (1981). Directed by Steven Seagal alongside John Huston, Joseph L Mankewicz, Vittorio de Sica, Woody Allen, Joseph Losey, Otto Preminger, Brian De Palma and Sidney Lumet; He has worked with Laurence Olivier, Shirley MacLaine, Dirk Bogarde, Maggie Smith, Omar Sharif, Jack Nicholson, Sidney Poitier… and Kermit the Frog. When he wrote his first autobiography thirty years ago, he did so assuming his days in front of the camera were over. His second acting debut, which turned him into Christopher Nolan’s fetish actor and much more in recent years, happened almost despite him.
Caine announces his retirementAnd it’s not the first time he’s done this. In 1968 he announced that he would stop making films after 10 years. After acting in ‘Harry Brown’ (2009), he assured that it would be his last film and said the same after releasing ‘Best Sellers’ (2021). If his decision is finally finalized, he should be applauded, even if it is difficult to accept (it is difficult to imagine the world of cinema without him). He definitely deserved the rest.