Michael Caine names his movie idols
Thanks to a legendary career that spanned more than seven decades, Michael Caine is a certifiable icon of cinema and a performer future generations can, have, and will continue to look towards as an inspiration and influence for years to come.
Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect any actor to set out on their career confident that a place in the history books was guaranteed to follow, but the easiest way to do it is to deliver consistently. In Caine’s case, that came through a string of classic movies covering multiple genres, two Academy Award wins for ‘Best Supporting Actor’, and the effortless gravitas he brought to countless roles as he segued into his wizened veteran stage.
There are no shortage of talents who’d name Caine as their idol, but the young Maurice Micklewhite needed at least a couple of his own before he adopted his stage name, trod the boards, made the leap to the silver screen, and embarked on carving out his own legacy.
Unsurprisingly, then, the two stars Caine picked as his cinema idols when pressed by Esquire were among the brightest-shining stars in Hollywood right around the time he made his own debut. The aspiring actor received his first credited movie role in 1956 when he played Private Lockyer in the war story A Hill in Korea, just two years after Marlon Brando revolutionised the art form in On the Waterfront.
He deservedly won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ for his efforts, and one of the contenders he beat out to secure the trophy was Humphrey Bogart, who’d received his third nomination that very same year for The Caine Mutiny. As he explained of his idols, “Those were the two. I thought Marlon was fabulous.”
Not that The Caine Mutiny was his preferred Bogart vehicle, with Caine naming Casablanca as “my favourite film of all time.” Brando’s towering turn in On the Waterfront did get a mention as another towering performance that inspired him, though, as did Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia.
Such was Caine’s fondness for Bogart, and despite Casablanca being the cream of the crop in his estimation, it was The Caine Mutiny that saw him settle on the surname that would lead him to success. The ‘Golden Age’ icon would pass away in 1957, so they never had the chance to cross paths, but the same can’t be said of Brando.
When Caine encountered the Oscar-winning troublemaker for the first time in 1966, he revealed how his first time coming face-to-face with one of his cinematic idols placed him right in the middle of the difficult star throwing a tantrum on the set of The Appaloosa. Caine tried to diffuse the situation by singing the praises of director Sidney Furie, whereas Brando was adamant the filmmaker “couldn’t direct traffic”.
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