(MENAFN- Jordan Times) LONDON - Veteran British actor Michael Caine, a hollywood icon with a decades-spanning career littered with awards and acclaim, revealed on Saturday that he has retired from acting at the age of 90.
The Oscar-winner bows out following another widely-praised performance in his final film,“The Great Escaper”, which was released on October 6.
In it he plays real-life World War II British veteran Bernie Jordan, who escaped from an elderly residential care home to attend 2014 D-Day celebrations in France.
“I keep saying I'm going to retire. Well I am now,” Caine told BBC radio 4's Today programme.
“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.”
A prolific actor known for his amiable Cockney persona and deadpan acting style, Caine has appeared in more than 160 films during his seven-decade career.
Possessing one of Hollywood's most recognisable - and imitated - voices, he has long enjoyed iconic status in Britain, where he became a defining face of the so-called Swinging Sixties.
His filmography includes classic films ranging from“Zulu” and“The Italian Job” to more recently appearing in“Interstellar” and“The Dark Knight” franchise, alongside Christian Bale.
A six-time Oscar nominee - who has won two Academy Awards, in 1986 (“Hannah and Her Sisters”) and 2000 (“The Cider House Rules”) - he has also earned Golden Globes, BAFTAs and numerous other gongs.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.
Working class roots
Caine's acting retirement announcement comes a month before his first novel,“Deadly Game”, is scheduled for release.
He revealed in June that it had been a long-held ambition to write a thriller, noting it is the genre he most enjoys reading.
Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in 1933 - to a fish-porter father and cleaner mother - the eventual star chose his stage name in tribute to his favourite movie“The Caine Mutiny”.
He left school at 16 and held a string of odd jobs before serving in the Korean War, only turning to acting after being discharged from the army.
Early starring roles included as working-class spy Harry Palmer in the 1965 Cold War drama“The Ipcress File” and a year later as womanising Alfie Elkins in“Alfie”.
In 1971, he played gangster Jack Carter in the gritty mobland flick“Get Carter” alongside another pin-up of the time, Britt Ekland, cementing him as a household name in Britain.
Prior to that, 1969's“The Italian Job” allowed Caine to deliver one of his most memorable - and often quoted - lines.
“You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off,” his character Charlie Croker says, as his rag-tag team prepares for an audacious gold bullion robbery in Milan.
The 1983 comedy“Educating Rita” saw him praised for his portrayal of a jaded university professor, while he featured in“The Muppet Christmas Carol” in 1992 as a singing and dancing Ebenezer Scrooge.
Some roles failed to impress, but Caine remained unrepentant.
“I have never seen it but by all accounts it is terrible,” Caine once said of“Jaws: The Revenge” - voted the sixth worst summer movie of all time by rottentomatoes.
“However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific,” he added.
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