To me, Sir Michael Caine, is a total and utter inspiration.

There I’ve said it.

In the past I have been heavily criticised for saying that. His politics seem to be the biggest bugbear for the naysayers. Yes, it’s fair to say I have different views to him on a few things, but I’m not judging him on his politics. No, I simply find the way someone from his background, had the courage and dedication to follow his dreams in an era when that would have been seen as folly, well, inspiring.

See, I’ve said it again…

In declaring he wanted to be an actor and coming from the macho working class life he was born into, would have left him open to ridicule from his peers and speculation about his sexuality.

‘When I told my dad I was going to be an actor he never said a word but I saw his face and thought, he thinks I’m gay.

The theatre in those days was very gay. But I wasn’t.’ he said later.

Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr.was born in Rotherhithe, South East London on March 14th 1933. Mum Ellen was a cleaner and dad Maurice Snr. worked as porter at Billingsgate Fish Market. After the Second World War, the family relocated to the nearby Elephant and Castle and Caine attended the local John Ruskin junior school and later Wilson’s Grammar school. He served in Korea for his National Service, a life changing experience by all accounts, which fired him on to the life he wanted rather than the one expected of him.

Starting as an assistant stage manager aged 20, he spent the next ten years in repertory theatre under the name of Michael Scott learning not only his craft, but also just how hard it was going to be to ‘make it’ in his chosen profession. Newly married in 1954, he arrives in London after serving his provincial apprenticeship; he once again changes his name this time to Michael Caine, after seeing the film ‘The Caine Mutiny’ advertised in Leicester Square. Small TV and film roles follow, his work beginning to get him noticed.

Film director Cy Endfield casts him as the upper class lieutenant Gonville Bromhead, in the film ‘Zulu’, with Caine proving he could go against type, if the role demanded it. The part made him a film star. There then begins a run of well loved films that firmly set Caine as one of the best know leading men in the UK film industry. 1965 saw him as sergeant Harry Palmer, a down at heel spy and food lover in ‘The Ipcress File’, in 1966 he was the rascal Alfie Elkins in the much loved ‘Alfie’ as well as reviving his role as Palmer in ‘Funeral In Berlin’ and again later in ‘Billion Dollar Brain in 1967.

His first foray into Hollywood came in 1966 with the film ‘Gambit,’ playing opposite Shirley McLaine and then came perhaps his most loved roles as the dapper thief Charlie Croker in ‘The Italian Job.’

The film captured the swinging 60s vibe of the time with a stellar cast including ‘Sir’, the one and only Noel Coward. It even had a soundtrack by Quincy Jones, with my man Tubby Hayes on tenor sax on the instrumental version of the song ‘On Days Like These”

The 1970s saw him no less busy. He memorably played the gangster Jack Carter returning to Newcastle to solve the death of his brother Frank. This is a new Caine, menacing with none of the cheeky chappie panache of some of his previous work. He then played opposite Sir Larry Olivier in the psychological drama ‘Sleuth’ in 1972 and alongside his good pal Sean Connery in the ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ directed by John Huston

By this stage, Caine was a world famous actor, at the top of his game, though sometimes making the odd clunker of a film, simply for the size of the fee he was being offered. When he got it right though, he was still turning in marvellous performances, winning a BAFTA for his work in Educating Rita and an Oscar for his part in the Woody Allen film ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’

If for nothing else though, his work in that golden 1960s period would be enough to justify his decision to hit the stage and learn his craft as an actor, when it looked a pipe dream to everyone else.

In truth, we simply haven’t enough space here to document the rest of his career, suffice to say he has never stopped working and he is still picking up plaudits for his craft well into his 80s.

I suppose my admiration for Caine is more keenly felt, as I’m from the same part of London as him.  That leaves me with a small insight into how far he has come from such humble beginnings.  

So Sir Michael I raise a drink in your honour. In a thin glass of course….

The Mumper of SE5