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Michael Caine has been in over ninety motion pictures and has been nominated for six Academy Awards including Alfie, Sleuth, Educating Rita and The Quiet American. The highly lauded thespian won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for his performances in Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules.

Caine's other honors include the New York Critics' Best Actor Award for Alfie, a Golden Globe Best Actor Award and a BAFTA Award (the British equivalent of an Oscar) for Educating Rita, a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for Little Voice.

Caine was born in South London and had a childhood fascination with cinema. Leaving school at sixteen, he worked in numerous menial jobs until National Service with the Royal Fusiliers took him to Korea. Upon his discharge, his first job in the theater was as assistant stage manager in Horsham, Sussex. When he returned to London, he acted with Joan Littlewood's Theater Workshop and played a minor role in the film A Hill In Korea while obtaining bit parts in other movies and walk-on roles in a couple of West End plays.

Eventually touring Britain with one repertory company after another, he developed a relaxed stage presence and perfected a vast range of accents. Starting out as an understudy in the role of Private Bamforth in the London stage hit The Long and the Short and the Tall, Caine ended up taking over the part when O'Toole dropped out and toured the provinces for six months. Following this stint, his television and film parts grew more substantial. The turning point in his film career came in 1963, when he landed the part of aristocratic Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead in Zulu. Passing forever out of the ranks of anonymity, he next played Harry Palmer in the espionage thriller, The Ipcress File which exceeded all expectations at the box office.

In 1966, Alfie catapulted Caine to super-stardom. In the annual British film critics' poll it was voted Best Picture of the Year. It also gave him his first Academy Award nomination. In the late sixties, he appeared in Gambit, Funeral In Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain, Hurry Sundown, Woman Times Seven, Deadfall, The Italian Job, The Battle of Britain, Too Late The Hero and The Last Valley. During the seventies he starred in X, Y and Zee, Pulp, Sleuth, The Wilby Conspiracy, The Romantic Englishwoman, The Man Who Would Be King, Harry & Walter Go To New York, California Suite and The Swarm.

In the eighties, Caine starred in Dressed To Kill, Victory, The Hand, Death Trap, Educating Rita, Blame It On Rio, The Holcroft Covenant, Hannah And Her Sisters, Sweet Liberty and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

In 1992, he and American producer Martin Bregman formed M & M Productions to make films in Britain for Caine to star in or direct. Their first production was Blue Ice, costarring Sean Young and directed by Russell Mulcahy.

Caine is also an author. He wrote an autobiography, What's It All About?, as well as Acting on Film, a book based on a highly successful series of lectures he gave on BBC Television. Caine most recently appeared in this summer's releases Batman Begins and Bewitched.

In 2000, Queen Elizabeth II honored Michael Caine with knighthood. Born Maurice Micklewhite, he is now officially known as Sir Michael Caine.

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