I was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. Imagine signing that autograph! You’d get a broken arm. So I changed my name to Michael Caine after Humphrey Bogart’s ‘The Caine Mutiny,’ which was playing in the theater across from the telephone booth where I learned that I’d gotten my first TV job.
I regard the theater as a woman I loved dearly who treated me like dirt.
I’m a frustrated stand-up comic. If you hand me a microphone and I get one laugh, then I’ll go on for 20 minutes.
I’m forever testing myself. As a person and as an actor, I have no sense of competition.
I just love to go home, no matter where I am, the most luxurious hotel suite in the world, I love to go home.
If you’re a movie star, you get the girl, you lose the girl, and then you get her back. But if you’re a character like me, you lose the girl, then you get another one, then you get another one, then you lose them all, then you lose your life.
My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.
When I look in the mirror, I see someone who’s happy with how he looks, because I was never one of the handsome Hollywood people. And I’ve had success as I’ve gotten older, because I’m able to play characters. I no longer get the girl, but I get the part.
I don’t want to sound like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, but I do think there should be some sort of national service for young men.
Save your money. You’re going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.
There’s quite a lot of bad stuff written about me. My wife even says a lot of bad stuff about me. But she is wonderful.
When you’re a movie star and you’re young, you are always playing someone who’s a better fighter, a better lover, a better everything than you.
I wouldn’t make an anti-American film. I’m one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.
If you go away on location for three months and your wife stays at home, you’ve made a whole new load of friends and she’s made a whole new load of friends and you get home and you’re kind of strangers.
I’ve made the transition from star to character actor and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
I’m the audience’s representative on earth.
My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.
I was a repertory actor, which meant that I did a play every week. I was a different character every week; for a year, I was doing 40 or 50 characters.
You can see all sorts of things in film acting if you know where to look and what to look for. One thing I often notice is that the actor is looking for his mark, the place where he has to stand to be in the right place in the shot.
My problem was that I was blond. There were no heroes with blond hair. Robert Taylor and Henry Fonda, they all had dark hair. The only one I found was Van Johnson, who wasn’t too cool. He was a nice, homely American boy. So I created my own image. It worked.
I think life has got to develop as you get older, and I don’t want to be wandering along doing the same old thing. I want more out of life.
Comedy is underrepresented in every actor’s life, because it’s so bloody difficult to write.
The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.
Save your money. You’re going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.
There’s quite a lot of bad stuff written about me. My wife even says a lot of bad stuff about me. But she is wonderful.
The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.
I’m every bourgeois nightmare – a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.
English is clipped in speech. Texas is exactly the opposite.
Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.
If you think you’re going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.
Every time you get a movie, you get a medical. So you know, you know you’re alright for a couple of weeks.
I don’t want to sound like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, but I do think there should be some sort of national service for young men.
The greatest luxury is not driving. I didn’t own a car until I was 30, and that was a Rolls-Royce, so it was cheaper to insure a chauffeur. I never want to drive again. My mind is always on other things. I hate parking, and I’m very short-tempered and would get road rage, I’m sure.
I try to make everyone around me feel comfortable.
For all my education, accomplishments, and so called ‘wisdom’… I can’t fathom my own heart.
I had been nine years in the theatre and hadn’t had massive success. My only thing was I wanted to be an actor and I didn’t care when, where, or how much for.
I’ll always be there because I’m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I’ve any talent is beside the point.
Things are not quite what they seem always. Don’t start me on class, otherwise you’ll get a four-hour lecture.
I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop.
I admired Marlon Brando as I grew up. I though he was one of the finest screen actors around.
I don’t do it often, but I do cry. I also laugh a lot; people tell me I’m funny and I do like to laugh.
My wife comes with me on all the movies, but she is not an appendage to a film star or anything like that. She is a completely intertwined partner. She is the other half of me. Also, we’re still very much in love with each other. We always have been, we always will be.
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