Michael Caine recalls the first and only time he got high: “I laughed for five hours”
As one of Britain’s most celebrated living legends, the recently retired Michael Caine has led a career of unrivalled integrity and consistency. Following early success on various television features and budget movie productions in the 1950s, the London-born actor broke through in 1964 with a pivotal role in Cy Endfield’s colonial war classic Zulu.
Throughout the remainder of the decade, Caine became one of Britain’s most sought-after acting talents, with notable appearances in Alfie, Gambit, The Italian Job and Battle of Britain.
As a member of the 1960s elite, Caine circled classy London clubs with the era’s most distinguished celebrities, including members of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. “I knew all The Beatles, all The Rolling Stones,” Caine told Rolling Stone in 2019. “I knew everybody in the music business, and we spent our lives in discotheques. I drank alcohol quite heavily for some time. But I never did any drugs.”
When Caine says “never”, he ostensibly refers to hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, because he did have one fling with Mary Jane. Deep in the hippie era, Caine managed to refuse marijuana when the likes of Keith Richards, Brian Jones and John Lennon were passing around a joint. Still, curiosity got the better of him on one occasion with fellow actor Richard Harris.
Most widely recognised for his role as Professor Albus Dumbledor in the first two Harry Potter movies, Harris also appeared in A Man Called Horse, Cromwell, Unforgiven and Gladiator. He was also twice nominated for ‘Best Actor’ at the Academy Awards for his roles in This Sporting Life and the Field.
“I was at a party with Richard Harris, and I said, ‘I’ve never smoked marijuana,’ and he said, ‘Well, smoke one,'” Caine recalled of his first and only time with the drug. “I smoked the marijuana, and I must have been terribly tense because I laughed for five hours. I couldn’t get a taxi home because I was standing at one o’clock in the morning on the pavement trying to wave a taxi: ‘I’m not picking him up, he’s nuts or drunk.'”
Caine eventually found his way home, and all was well. Despite the laughter, he decided never to dabble with the devil’s cabbage again. As fun as it may have been to pass a joint around with The Beatles, the associative brain fog isn’t conducive to remembering one’s lines.
“Also, I was told by my doctor not to do it,” Caine added. “He said, ‘You’re an actor, you’ve got to remember lines, and marijuana is murder for the memory.'”
Fortunately, prudence didn’t see Caine sidelined from social engagements, and through the late ’60s, he became particularly close with George Harrison. “I knew John [Lennon] quite well, but George and I were neighbours, and we used to go to each other’s houses for dinner,” Caine once recalled. “I never did that with Paul or John. I invited George to dinner one evening, and he brought what we thought was a guitar, and we thought he was going to sing for us, and we were all excited.”
“What I didn’t know was that George was the president of the George Formby fan club,” he continued. “He was a famous, very funny singer who used to sing these silly songs. George had brought a ukulele and sang George Formby songs all evening. Which were great, but it was such a surprise.”
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