“We’ve got to have another name”: How a Leicester Square telephone box changed Michael Caine’s life
Leicester Square is a hellhole – home to fast food joints, a giant M&M world, and a barrage of annoying street performers. It’s simply a London tourist nightmare, and while it has some great cinemas in and around it, that’s about the most appealing thing you’ll find there.
The area is steeped in history, though, not least because it’s where actor Michael Caine chose his stage name, soon becoming one of Britain’s greatest stars. Leicester Square has long asserted itself as an entertainment hub, bordering on many of the city’s most prestigious theatres, and of course, hosting many major film premieres, and it was here that the budding actor found himself making a decision that would inform the rest of his life.
Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, and growing up, he faced the impact of war, whether that be through evacuating London for Norfolk or having to live in prefab housing with nothing but the bare necessities, yet he was determined to become a star, wanting to escape the difficult upbringing he had experienced.
So, after serving in the war and taking on menial jobs in factories and offices, Caine landed himself a behind-the-scenes role at a theatre, which allowed him to get closer to his dream of actually appearing on stage, and in 1950, he bagged his first part on screen, and though it was minuscule, it prepared him for a career that would see him win several Oscars and unanimous acclaim as a British icon.
Roles came and went in the ‘50s, and it didn’t seem like he was getting very far, but then he landed himself an agent, who suggested he come up with a new moniker – his original stage name, Michael Scott, was already taken. Of course, Steve Carell hadn’t bagged the name that early on, but he needed something more original, so, standing in a phone booth in Leicester Square, the actor was struck with a source of inspiration.
“I changed my name. I got my name from The Caine Mutiny,” the actor told the Guardian. “I called myself Michael Scott,” he revealed, adding, “I rang my agent from Leicester Square, in a phone box, and I said, ‘Have I got a job?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I’ve got you a week on Dixon of Dock Green. The problem is, you’ve got to join Equity’ – this is my first television – ‘and there’s another Michael Scott. So,’ she said, ‘You can call yourself Michael, but we’ve got to have another name.’”
Being tasked with coming up with a name for yourself is never easy – I get into a panic over what to call my pub quiz team name – but Micklewhite had limited time to decide. “I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you tomorrow.’ And she said, ‘No, I need it now. I’ve got to sign the contract and send it in.’
He concluded, “So I just looked through the trees, at the Odeon Leicester Square, it just said Caine Mutiny. So, I just said: ‘Caine.’ If I’d gone to the Leicester Square theatre, I’d have been called Michael A Hundred and One Dalmatians!” And there you have it. That was the day Maurice Micklewhite officially became Michael Caine.
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