Michael Caine Hints He Might Retire From Acting (Or Not)

Sir Michael Caine appeared to hint he might retire from acting, but later assured fans on Twitter [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Sir Michael Caine appeared to hint he might retire from acting, but later assured fans on Twitter he is not slowing down, even at 85 years old.

"Will never stop caring and working. For the past few months been writing my book BLOWING THE BLOODY DOORS OFF," Caine tweeted early Sunday.

The film icon attended a special screening of Christopher Nolan's Inception at Somerset House Friday, where he told the Mirror he thought his career was over before he started his association with Nolan.

"When I was about 70 the world starting to close in on me," Caine told the Mirror. "He came to me with Batman Begins and he restarted my acting life."

Caine continued, "When you get to 70 or 75 you think it is all over. I then made seven of the best movies I was ever in."

In 2005, Nolan cast Caine as Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth in Batman Begins. That started a long association with Nolan, and Caine became a "good luck charm." Caine went on to appear in The Prestige, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Interstellar. He even had an uncredited voice role in Dunkirk last year.

"I dearly like the man. I regard him as my lucky charm," Caine said of Nolan Friday.

This was not the first time Caine hinted about retirement. Earlier this year, he told Time Out Magazine, "They haven't retired me just yet. I feel it's coming. I'm 85 this week and getting up at 6:30 a.m. and learning six pages of dialogue ... well, it's not my idea of paradise."

Caine attended the event even though he is recovering from an injury he suffered earlier this year. He was using a cane to walk after he slipped on ice in his garden and broke his ankle.

Caine has been in more than 160 films and TV Shows, dating back to the mid-1950s. He shot to fame in the 1960s, with films like Alfie, The Italian Job and Get Carter. He has a pair of Oscars for his supporting roles in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999). His next film, The King of Thieves, opens in September in the U.K. He was also seen in Dear Dictator and Going in Style last year.

Caine also recently narrated My Generation, a documentary about his life in '60s London. In an interview with The Guardian to promote that movie, he defiantly said he would never make the decision to retire himself.

"The movie business retires you," Caine said in March. "I've just turned down a film, actually; but if I get a script I really want to do, I will. I'm busy enough. I've got the TV series and a book I'm writing. I did a guide to acting, which went very well, so now I'm writing one on stardom. It's full of funny stories and I name-drop like fury, obviously. You might have noticed."

Photo credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

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