Credit: Alamy

Sir Michael Caine reflects on his career: Death is “around the corner”

Sat 7 October 2023 12:55, UK

The British acting legend Sir Michael Caine addresses his own mortality and reflects on an illustrious career as he ponders retirement at 90.

After hinting that his role in Oliver Parker’s new movie The Great Escaper could well be his last amid talk of retirement, the actor has elaborated that death may be “around the corner,” but he’s happy with his life.

“The worst thing about it is that so much disappears from your life,” Caine told the Daily Telegraph earlier this week. “You can’t run around, you can’t play football, and you gradually realise you’re approaching death. [Death] could be just around the corner at 90.

“But I’m quite happy. I’m sitting here writing, doing my thing. I like it. I have two children, three grandchildren and a wife… Everyone’s going to join me eventually. No one’s going to say, ‘I’m so sorry you’re going to die — I wish you were like me and not going to die.'”

Accepting his place in life, Caine shows nothing but gratitude for the time he’s had so far. “Everybody’s going to die,” he asserted. “At least I’ve lived to fucking 90; I didn’t die at 9, or 19 or 29. I’m 90, and I’ve had the best possible life I could have thought of.”

While the actor is generally in good health, his movement isn’t as supple as it once was, which caused some difficulty while shooting The Great Escaper. “They gave me a very good walking stick, and I was able to do scenes that needed that,” Caine revealed. “I’d just do them once and then fall over. But just one take, and that’s it. Forget it.”

“I am bloody 90 now, and I can’t walk properly and all that,” Caine added, pondering his future. “I sort of am retired now anyway…”

The Great Escaper hit UK cinema screens on October 6th. The movie follows the remarkable true story of World War Two veteran Bernard ‘Bernie” Jordan, portrayed by Caine, who escaped from his care home in 2014 to attend a 70th-anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France.

Watch the trailer for The Great Escaper below.