Blogger Template by Blogcrowds

Biography of the Day: Michael Caine

“Be like a duck, my mother used to tell me. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath."
When Caine first became an actor, he adopted the stage name "Michael Scott". His agent soon informed him, however, that another actor was already using the same name, and that he had to come up with a new name immediately. Speaking to his agent from a telephone box in Leicester Square in London, Caine looked around for inspiration, noted that The Caine Mutiny was being shown at the Odeon Cinema, and decided to change his name to "Michael Caine". He once joked to an interviewer that had he looked the other way, he would have ended up as "Michael One Hundred and One Dalmatians".
Caine's acting career began in Horsham, West Sussex. He responded to an advertisement for an assistant stage manager for the Horsham-based Westminster Repertory Company. This led to walk-on roles at the Carfax Theatre. After several minor roles, Caine came into the public eye as an upper-class British army officer in the 1964 film Zulu. This proved paradoxical, as Caine was to become notable for using a regional accent, rather than the received pronunciation hitherto considered proper for film actors. At the time, Caine's working-class cockney, just as with The Beatles' Liverpudlian accents, stood out to American and British audiences alike. Zulu was closely followed by two of his best-known roles: the spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965), and the woman-chasing title character in Alfie (1966). He went on to play Palmer in a further two films, Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion-Dollar Brain (1967). Caine made his first movie in the United States in 1966, after an invitation from Shirley MacLaine to play opposite her in Gambit. During the first two weeks, whilst staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he met long term friends John Wayne and agent "Swifty" Lazar.
After ending the 1960s with the equally iconic The Italian Job, with Noel Coward, and a solid role as an RAF fighter pilot, Squadron Leader Canfield, in the all-star cast of Battle of Britain (1969), Caine entered the 1970s with Get Carter, a British gangster film. Caine was busy throughout the 1970s, with successes including Sleuth (1972), opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and The Man Who Would Be King (1975), costarring Sir Sean Connery. By the end of the decade, he had moved to the U.S., but his choice of roles was beginning to be criticised. Caine was averaging two films a year, but these included such failures as The Swarm (1978), Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), The Island (1980) and The Hand (1981). Although Caine also took better roles, including a BAFTA-winning turn in Educating Rita (1983) and an Oscar-winning one in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), he continued to appear in notorious duds like Jaws: The Revenge (1987) and Bullseye! (1990). Of the former, Caine famously said "I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific".
The 1990s were a lean time for Caine as he found good parts harder to come by. His early '90s output included a villain in the Steven Seagal flop On Deadly Ground (1994), two straight to video Harry Palmer sequels and a few television movies. However, Caine's reputation as a pop icon was still intact, thanks to his roles in films such as The Italian Job and Get Carter. His performance in 1998's Little Voice was seen as something of a return to form, and won him a Golden Globe Award. Better parts followed, including The Cider House Rules (1999), for which he won his second Oscar, Last Orders (2001), The Quiet American (2002) and others which helped rehabilitate his reputation. Several of Caine's classic films have been remade to appeal to new, younger audiences, including The Italian Job, Get Carter, and Alfie. In 2005, he was cast as Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred in the Batman film series. In 2006, he appeared in the films Children of Men and The Prestige.
Caine has been Oscar-nominated six times, winning his first Academy Award for the 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters, and his second in 1999 for The Cider House Rules, in both cases as a supporting actor. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1993 for services to drama, and in 2000 he was knighted, becoming Sir Maurice Micklewhite. Unlike many actors who adopt their stage name for everyday use, Caine still uses his real name when he is not working.
Caine is a popular subject for impressionists and mimics, having a voice and manner of speaking that are distinctive, yet fairly easy to imitate. Most Caine impressions include the catchphrase "Not a lot of people know that”. In 1983, the remark really caught on, when Caine was given the line to say as an in-joke in the film Educating Rita. In 1984, he also put the name Not A Lot Of People Know That! to a book of trivial facts for charity.
Caine is one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s. The other is Jack Nicholson.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment



Mensagem mais recente Mensagem antiga Página inicial