He turned to lighter fare with an appearance as a spymaster in the comic thriller Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). Caine joined the ensemble cast of Nolan’s space drama Interstellar (2014) as a NASA scientist leading a team in search of a habitable planet in the wake of catastrophic war and famine on Earth. He played a stranded adventurer in the family-oriented Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) and portrayed a bamboozled insurance magnate in the heist spectacle Now You See Me (2013) and its 2016 sequel. Caine then provided voices for the animated films Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) and its sequel, Sherlock Gnomes (2018), and Cars 2 (2011). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Ĭaine later appeared as a pensioner turned vigilante in Harry Brown (2009) and as the mentor to a corporate spy (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in Nolan’s science-fiction thriller Inception (2010). In 2007 he starred in Kenneth Branagh’s remake of Sleuth, portraying the character originally played by Olivier. Caine’s other notable films included the thrillers Children of Men (2006) and The Prestige (2006), the latter also directed by Nolan. He reprised the role in the sequels The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The film was a critical and commercial success. In 2005 Caine appeared in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, playing the superhero’s butler and confidant, Alfred. He won his second best-supporting-actor Oscar for The Cider House Rules (1999) and was nominated as best actor for his performance as a conflicted British journalist in Vietnam in The Quiet American (2002). By the end of the 20th century, Caine had appeared in more than 100 films. His better films of the 1980s included Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980), Deathtrap (1982), Educating Rita (1983 best actor Oscar nomination), Mona Lisa (1986), Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986 Academy Award for best supporting actor), Without a Clue (1988), and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988). When they weren’t offered to me, I’d look for the good ones and when those passed me by, I’d take the ones that would pay the rent.” “I didn’t go in search of some of my more questionable films,” he once said, “I was always on the lookout for the great roles. Though many of these films were dismal failures, Caine’s reputation did not suffer, because he had garnered respect for being such a tireless workhorse. He continued his prodigious output during the 1980s, appearing in some two dozen films during the decade. He followed these successes with such popular films as John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and John Sturges’s The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Mankiewicz’s Sleuth (1972), in which he starred opposite Laurence Olivier. He appeared in the cult classic Get Carter (1971) and received another best actor Oscar nomination for Joseph L. He was especially deft at light comedy and usually managed to reveal subtly humorous elements within a given screenplay.īy the 1970s Caine had achieved international stardom. His star quality was not sacrificed for such versatility, and he retained his affable Cockney persona in most roles. His cool urbanity was perhaps the only constant among performances that included cynical secret agents, gregarious playboys, rugged adventurers, refined gentlemen, humble schoolteachers, and psychotic killers. In these early films, Caine established himself as a versatile actor whose everyman qualities were well suited to a variety of roles.
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