“The greatest day of my life”: how a coffee advert changed Michael Caine
Rising to stardom at the height of the Swinging Sixties, Michael Caine was the embodiment of the working class lad done good, becoming cinema’s first certified cockney superstar.
It was far from an easy road to reach the top of the mountain, with the actor being displaced during his childhood by the outbreak of World War II before seeing active combat during his military service, even if his perseverance paid off in style when he ended up becoming not just one of the United Kingdom’s most iconic actors, but a legend of Hollywood.
By his own admission, Caine only began dabbling in acting to begin with because he thought it would be the easiest way to get girls. During his initial breakthrough period, he was a regular at many of London’s hottest nightspots. However, that all changed in an instant, and all because he saw an advert on television for a coffee brand.
That’s one way of experiencing a full-blown awakening, but Caine refused to let logistics get in the way of his ambition. In an interview, he explained to NPR that as soon as the ad had finished playing, he knew what he had to do. Not only that but with the added benefit of hindsight, he was able to confidently proclaim it as “the greatest day of my life”.
“A commercial came on for coffee, and this girl was in it with these maracas. And I fell in love with this girl instantly, absolutely instantly,” he said. “And then I got all excited. And I said, ‘Oh, I said, we’re going to Brazil tomorrow to find her’. And then I went, ‘Well, let’s go out and have a drink’. So, I went down to discotheque, and we’re sitting there, and a guy came in we knew.”
When his friend quizzed Caine on why he wasn’t living up to his billing as a ladies’ man, he responded by saying that he was already taken. “I said, ‘I’m in love with a girl I saw on television. I’m going to Brazil to find her tomorrow.'” In a fortuitous stroke of luck, the actor’s acquaintance informed him that he’d gotten his countries completely wrong, saving him the hassle of jetting to the other side of the world for no reason.
The object of his affection wasn’t Brazilian, but she did live in London. Her name was Shakira Baksh, and now that he had a name to go with the face, the final obstacle was convincing her to go on a date. “I called every night for two weeks, and she wouldn’t go out with me,” Caine conceded before she eventually relented and agreed to join him for a night on the town.
The two were married in January 1973 and remain together to this day, which may not have happened at all had Caine not decided to park himself in front of the telly on that fateful day he saw her coffee ad for the first time.
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