Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen Frances Marie (Burchell), a charlady, and Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, a fish-market porter. He left school at 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager. He adopted the name of Caine on the advice of his agent, taking it from a marquee that advertised Ouragan sur le Caine (1954). In the years that followed he worked in more than 100 television dramas, with repertory companies throughout England and eventually in the stage hit, "The Long and the Short and the Tall." Zoulou (1964), the 1964 epic retelling of a historic 19th-century battle in South Africa between British soldiers and Zulu warriors, brought Caine to international attention. Instead of being typecast as a low-ranking Cockney soldier, he played a snobbish, aristocratic officer. Although "Zulu" was a major success, it was the role of Harry Palmer in Ipcress - danger immédiat (1965) and the title role in Alfie, le dragueur (1966) that made Caine a star of the first magnitude. He epitomized the new breed of actor in mid-'60s England, the working-class bloke with glasses and a down-home accent. However, after initially starring in some excellent films, particularly in the 1960s, including Un hold-up extraordinaire (1966), Mes funérailles à Berlin (1966), Enfants de salauds (1969), La bataille d'Angleterre (1969), Trop tard pour les héros (1970), La vallée perdue (1971) and especially La loi du milieu (1971), he seemed to take on roles in below-average films, simply for the money he could by then command. There were some gems amongst the dross, however. He gave a magnificent performance opposite Sean Connery in L'homme qui voulut être roi (1975) and turned in a solid one as a German colonel in L'aigle s'est envolé (1976). L'éducation de Rita (1983) and Hannah et ses soeurs (1986) (for which he won his first Oscar) were highlights of the 1980s, while more recently Little Voice (1998), L'oeuvre de Dieu, la part du diable (1999) (his second Oscar) and Last Orders (2001) have been widely acclaimed.
