The actor Michael Caine will always regret only working with once: “I will find something”
Even though he realised from an early age that he wanted to be an actor, Michael Caine could never have dreamed of the icons, legends, and superstars he’d eventually end up rubbing shoulders with.
After all, he grew up as a working-class kid 160 miles away from his home in London after being evacuated during World War II and ended up serving as a soldier himself in the Korean War. Even when acting became his full-time job, he started treading the boards in dingy theatres in front of paltry crowds.
However, after rising to prominence in the 1960s and crossing the pond to try his luck in America, Caine was suddenly surrounded by a veritable bounty of A-listers. He was friendly with John Wayne, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Jack Nicholson, and the Beatles, travelling in circles as far away as possible from his humble upbringing.
Unlike many of his peers, Caine didn’t diversify into writing, producing, or acting. He did write a book about acting, but that was as far as his extracurricular cinematic activities went. He made well over 100 movies during a seven-decade career, but 1992’s Blue Ice was the only time he was credited as a producer, other than a couple of ceremonial executive producing tags.
That meant that the two-time Academy Award winner typically didn’t have too much sway in who he did or didn’t share the screen with, which ultimately robbed him of the opportunity to collaborate with another longtime friend who also dabbled in the silver screen on occasion.
Caine and comedy favourite Billy Connolly worked together on co-writer and director Dick Clement’s 1985 caper Water, and their bond endured the shoot despite the latter covering the eyes of a bus driver and almost causing the vehicle to plunge off a cliff and into certain doom had the former not stepped in to wrestle the intoxicated Scotsman back into his seat and save everyone’s life.
Even though they stayed close and continued working, with Caine retiring at the age of 90 following 2023’s The Great Escaper and Connolly’s final film credit coming in 2016’s Wild Oats before he stepped away from the industry following his Parkinson’s diagnosis, they never made that second film.
When asked why it hadn’t happened, Caine admitted the right project had never materialised. “I’d love to,” he said of reuniting with Connolly one day. “We’ve just got to find something together. I will find something along the line, though.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Water isn’t going to be remembered as showcasing the best of their respective talents, but it’ll have to do as the one and only time Caine and Connolly made a movie together, despite Christopher Nolan’s lucky charm confessing that he’d always wanted to do it again.
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