Michael Caine has announced the end of his acting career after nearly seven decades in Hollywood.
The 90-year-old English actor shared the news in a BBC Radio interview, describing the moment he decided it was time to retire.
Caine stated, “I frequently claim that I’m going to retire. Well, I am now.”
His most recent film, “The Greatest Escaper,” in which he plays a man who flees from a nursing facility to attend the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, will be his last. The Warner Bros. picture hit theaters on October 6.
“I’ve figured, I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead and it’s got incredible reviews,” Michael Caine stated. “At this point, the only pieces I’m likely to find are for elderly men—90 or even 85 years old. So I figured I might as well take it all with me.
During the conversation, the actor from “The Dark Knight” emphasized the necessity of aging actors continuing to appear onscreen. He described his last few roles as “tiny old men with humped shoulders,” referring to the roles he remembered individuals at 90 performing when he was younger.
While he bid farewell to show business, he promised followers that he will return with a book in the future. He claimed writing his debut thriller, “Deadly Game,” which will be released in November, was fun enough for him to commit to a literary career. Plus, he said, writing a book involves far less labor.
“The thing about movie making is you have to get up at 6:30 in the morning, do a long ride learning lines in the car and then get there working until 10 o’clock at night,” said Caine. “With writing you don’t have to get out of bed.”
Michael Caine received six Oscar nominations and won two Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA over his career. He’s also the author of two memoirs, “What’s It All About?” in 1992 and “The Elephant to Hollywood” in 2010.
The actor earlier sparked speculation about a bogus retirement in 2021 when he told a BBC radio program that his film “Best Sellers” would be his final and informed the Guardian that he was retiring from performing.
He quickly emphasized that he was still acting in a post on X (previously Twitter), saying, “I haven’t retired, and not a lot of people know that.”
“Regarding retirement, I’ve spent over 50 years waking up at 6 a.m. to make movies, and I’m not getting rid of my alarm clock!” Michael Caine stated in a 2021 statement to Variety.
Read Michael Caine Biography Here.