How Michael Caine avoided London’s criminals
Starring in a string of famed crime movies gives any actor a superficial knowledge of how the mean streets tend to work. However, Michael Caine had first-hand experience encountering two of the most notorious criminals of the era when he was first rising to cinematic prominence.
It was in the 1960s when films like Zulu, The Ipcress File, Alfie, Gambit, and The Italian Job saw Caine start gaining widespread mainstream attention. Inevitably, it made him one of the most famous faces in and around London at the time. Simultaneously, identical twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray had attained similar status, even if everybody knew the nightclub owners were knee-deep in criminality.
In fact, both Caine and the Kray twins were born in the exact same year within six miles of each other, so it was inevitable their paths would cross at least once. Sure enough, as a hard-drinking star with a penchant for the local nightlife, the actor encountered the law-breaking siblings on more than one occasion.
As he admitted to Vanity Fair, Caine knew them “very well”, explaining how he made a point of maintaining a low profile so as not to rub them the wrong way. “They weren’t terrifying or anything unless you did something, you know? So, I used to not do anything when I was with them,” he said. “I would just drink the booze and smile a lot.”
The Krays have been the subjects of several feature films, documentaries, books, and stage plays. Still, despite his familiarity with the brothers and the crime genre, he never ended up appearing in a fictional work based on or inspired by their lives. Considering that he went out of his way to intentionally not befriend them, it’s clear why he wouldn’t have even sanctioned a part in such a project were it offered his way.
In an interview with Audible, the two-time Academy Award winner acknowledged that while he’d met them “about three or four times,” he nonetheless “tried very hard not to become a close friend because they were scary.” Expanding further, he was all too aware of that side of life to be drawn to it: “I thought I knew enough gangsters. I just want to be an actor and be quite simple and quiet, and we’re not going to hit anybody or slash anyone with a razor.”
Describing the Krays as not being “a relaxing couple to be with” is an understatement, considering the tales of murder, armed robbery, arson, racketeering, and violence that followed them everywhere they went. However, Caine wasn’t interested in the slightest in becoming one of the many celebrities regularly captured on camera in close proximity to Ronnie and Reggie. They may have been born and raised within a stone’s throw of each other, but the silver screen legend had his eyes on a different kind of fame and fortune.
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