Sir Michael Caine has announced his retirement from acting following the release of The Great Escaper.
The acting legend has called time on his storied career, with his accolades including two Academy Awards, one BAFTA and three Golden Globes.
With iconic parts in The Italian Job, Get Carter and The Dark Knight trilogy, Caine has now decided to retire at the age of 90, explaining his decision on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
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“I keep saying I'm going to retire – well I am now,” he said. “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?
"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 continued: "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 [and] compared to the number of pages in the script.
“And it was 15 [pages of dialogue] in a script which was 99 pages. And 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.”
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Caine’s final role will be in The Great Escaper, which is based on the real-life story of Bernard Jordan, who escaped from his nursing home to attend the commemorations for the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
The film also stars the late Glenda Jackson, who passed away in June at the age of 87, with Caine paying tribute to the actor in a statement: “Glenda was one of our greatest movie actresses.
“It was a privilege to work with her on The Great Escaper recently, our second film together. It was as wonderful an experience this time as it was 50 years ago. I shall miss her.”
The Great Escaper is in cinemas now.
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
