Michael Caine is a British leading actor who did some of his best work in British gangster films of the 1960's, but his ability has ensured that he has continued to put in some good quality performances in more recent films. Michael Caine came from a working class London background and his initial acting was in repertory theatre where he learnt to play characters from different social classes. In the late 1950's and early 1960's he had a number of minor roles in films and on television and then he was cast in Zulu as an upper class soldier.
This was followed by the Ipcress File and his role as the spy Harry Palmer. This made him a major star which was helped by his 1960's womanising film Alfie. The highlight of his 1960's career was the Italian Job and one of the greatest British films of the 1960's. Get Carter was a more violent and gritty and realist gangster film but another significant film in his career. Sleuth was a very different style of film as a complex plot that is a double header opposite Lawrence Oliver. The Man Who Would Be King matched him against Sean Connery.
With Deathtrap he plays the opposite characters that he played in Sleuth. Educating Rita brought Michael Caine back to being a British actor and won him an Oscar nomination. Staring in a Woody Allen film was not an obvious choice but his performance in Hannah And Her Sisters won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Unusually for Michael Caine he appeared opposite Steve Martin in the comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Little Voice was a good but very British working class film. He won his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Cider House Rules. This was followed by several supporting roles in Comedies before appearing in the big budget Batman Begins from Christopher Nolan. In 2007 he stared in Kenneth Branagh's version of Sleuth playing the opposite character to his original role in Sleuth. In Harry Brown he combines his working class background and his military experience to be a vigilante. He had continued to show his versatility in films like Kingsman and Interstallar.
