Michael Caine Retires from Acting at Age 90

Two-time Academy Award winner, Michael Caine, has retired from acting at the age of 90.

After his comments last month that he was “sort of retired”, the acting veteran, has confirmed his retirement in an interview following the release of his movie "The Great Escaper".

“I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well I am now. I’ve figured, I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead and had incredible reviews … What am I going to do that will beat this?” he told the BBC.

Caine said he wanted to close his glittering film career, which has spanned seven decades, on a high note: “The only parts I’m liable to get now are 90-year-old men. Or maybe 85. They’re not going to be the lead. You don’t have leading men at 90, you’re going to have young handsome boys and girls. So I thought, I might as well leave with all this.”

He had previously spoken about his plans for retirement and had hinted that The Great Escaper would be his final film.

But it is hardly the first time a Caine movie has been billed as his last appearance, with Harry Brown in 2009 and Best Sellers in 2021 both described as such. This announcement comes a month after he told the Guardian that he would play Charles Darwin in a movie due to be shot next year.

In The Great Escaper, Caine plays Bernard Jordan, a real-life Royal Navy veteran who made headlines in 2014 when he left his care home in Hove, East Sussex, alone to attend celebrations in Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-day.

He stars alongside Glenda Jackson, who completed filming months before she passed away in June, and John Standing, who plays the fictional role of a former RAF pilot he befriends on the ferry.

Caine and Jackson first worked together on the 1975 movie "The Romantic Englishwoman", and Caine said that while they got on, he didn’t share her leftwing politics. Jackson was a Labour MP for more than two decades.

The legendary actor told BBC he had turned down a role after filming "The Great Escaper": “I was sent a script actually, and I looked at it, and then I did something I’ve never done before. I counted how many pages I had, compared to the number of pages in the script,” The role he was offered included 15 pages of dialogue in a 99-page script, he said.

“I thought, I think that counts as a small part, I’m not doing it. So I retired … I thought, I’m ahead here, I may do a little part and get a bad review … so I thought, why not leave now? So I’ve left.”

One of the best-known and loved British film stars of the past 60 years, Caine has appeared in more than 130 films, including Zulu, Alfie, The Italian Job and Sleuth.

He won supporting actor Oscars for his performances in "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "The Cider House Rules", and more recently has collaborated with the director Christopher Nolan.