Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Jr.
Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Jr. (b. 14 March 1933 in Rotherhithe, London), known internationally under his stage name Michael Caine, is an English stage, television and film actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over a career that spanned eight decades and is considered a British cultural icon. He has received numerous awards including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide. Caine is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades. In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Life
Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Jr. was born at St Olave's Hospital in the Rotherhithe district of London on 14 March 1933, the son of fish market porter Maurice Joseph Micklewhite (1899–1956) and his wife cook and charwoman Ellen Frances Marie, née Burchell (1900–1989). His father was from a Catholic Irish Gypsy family background. Caine was raised in his mother's Protestant faith. He had a younger brother, Stanley (1935–2013), who also became an actor, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell.
He grew up in London's Southwark district; during the Second World War, he was evacuated 100 miles (160 km) to North Runcton, Norfolk, where he made his acting debut at the village school and had a pet horse called Lottie. After the war, Caine's father was demobilised and the family were rehoused by the council in Marshall Gardens in London's Elephant and Castle area.
In 1952, Caine was called up to do his national service. Between 1952 and 1954, he served in the British Army's Royal Fusiliers, first at the British Army of the Rhine Headquarters in Iserlohn, West Germany, and then on active service in the Korean War. Caine was married twice and has two children. He married Patricia Haines in 1954 (o¦o 1958). In 1973, he married British-Guyanese (of Muslim Indian descent) actress, fashion model and beauty pageant titleholder Shakira Baksh (b. 23 February 1947).
Acting career
Micklewhite called himself "Michael White"[1] at the start of his more serious acting career in 1953. When receiving his first job offer from "Equity", the UK trade union representing professional performers and creative practitioners, including actors, in London and across the UK, they told him, there was already a trade union member with the name "Michael White", he needed to pick a new name. He only had a few minutes time, so as a fan of Humphrey Bogart he saw an advertisement for the film "The Caine Mutiny" at Leicester Square, and so he told his agent he would choose "Caine" and spelled it out for her.
- I came out of a repertory theater in the country, and I came to London, and I didn’t have a telephone, and there was a club called the Artsiana Club — where all the out-of-work actors used to be in the coffee bar in the basement — and it was at Leicester Square, which is like Broadway in New York, all the big cinemas and theaters. And every night, I used to go and phone my agent — to see if there was a job — at six o’clock, in a phone booth on Leicester Square. And because my name was Micklewhite, I called myself — I didn’t want to use that name — in repertory, I was called Michael White. And then, one night, I got a job, and the woman said — my agent, Josephine, said to me, she said, “You’ve got to change your name because you’ve got to join Equity, the trade union.” I said, “Yes.” She said, “There is another Michael White in the trade union.” So she said, “You can call yourself ‘Michael,’ but you can’t call yourself ‘White’.” She said, “And I need a name now because I’ve got to call the producer, and I’ve got to say your name and tell him who’s going to play the part.” So she said, “Give me a surname.” So I look around the cinemas, and one of my favorite actors is Humphrey Bogart. And on the Odeon in Leicester Square, at that time, was The Caine Mutiny with Humphrey Bogart. And I said, “Michael Caine.” She said, “Okay, how do you spell it?” I said C-A-I-N-E, that’s it. If I had gone to the Leicester Square Theater, I’d have been “Michael 101 Dalmatians.”[2]
In 1963, he appeared in Next Time I'll Sing to You which opened at Criterion Theatre and New Arts Theatre, both in Greater London. Often playing a Cockney, Caine made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), The Italian Job (1969), and Battle of Britain (1969; Luftschlacht um England). During this time he established a distinctive visual style wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses combined with sharp suits and a laconic vocal delivery; he was recognised as a style icon of the 1960s. He solidified his stardom with roles in Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), The Man Who Would Be King (1975; together with Sean Connery), The Eagle Has Landed (1976; Der Adler ist gelandet), and A Bridge Too Far (1977; Die Brücke von Arnheim). In 1988, he played Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline of Scotland Yard in the television miniseries Jack the Ripper.
