Two-time Oscar winner Michael Caine is finally going to do what he has been saying he was going to do for a long time — retire.
The 90-year-old British actor told BBC radio in an interview broadcast on Saturday that he can’t beat his latest film, which was just released.
“I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now,” the iconic actor said, according to Reuters. “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?”
Caine’s latest film, “The Great Escaper”, is based on the true story of a World War Two veteran Bernard Jordan, who slips out of his care home on the British south coast and travels to France to attend D-Day anniversary celebrations. His costar in the film, Glenda Jackson, died in June shortly after completing her part.
“The only parts I’m liable to get now are 90-year-old men. Or maybe 85,” Caine told the BBC. “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.”
Caine, whose birth name is Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, won Two Oscars for Best-Supporting Actor, for the 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters, and for the 1999 film, The Cider House Rules. Other popular films he has starred in include Alfie, Get Carter, Secondhand Lion, and Educating Rita.
According to his IMDb bio, Caine “left school at age 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England, he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager. He adopted the name of Caine on the advice of his agent, taking it from a marquee that advertised The Caine Mutiny (1954).”
His remarkable career spans 77 years and he has accrued 176 IMDb credits to his name, with the website noting that he is the ninth-highest-grossing box office star — as of 2015, films in which Caine has starred have grossed over $7.4 billion worldwide.