Michael Caine’s mind-blowing connection to James Bond: “Is he ever going to stop playing that bloody piano?”
In the world of show business, everyone is connected in some way. Whether it be movie stars who were once married, secret cousins, or once lived in the same building. It could be Timothée Chalamet and Colman Domingo discovering that they were once neighbours or the unlikely union between Fiona Apple and Paul Thomas Anderson, but in the world of Hollywood, there are always unexpected relationships that seem to creep out of the woodwork.
Despite playing many secret agents, Michael Caine never played James Bond, but he did have one surprising connection to the series that gave him an early insight into its later success.
Sean Connery was the first actor to play James Bond, a staggering feat given how colossally successful and culturally important the series became, defining British media as we know it. From the suave elegance of the character to the slick action sequences, the film immediately captivated audiences, which was also partly due to the score.
Composed by John Barry, the legendary theme of James Bond has gone down in history, with everyone being able to recognise the sound of the brass instruments as they burst into sound, followed by the effortlessly cool strumming of the guitar motif, which was played by Vic Flick on a 1939 English Clifford Essex paragon deluxe guitar. With the fusion of jazz and the twangy guitar undertone, the theme reflects the tone of the series and perfectly sets up a mood of intrigue and sexy danger.
However, while the theme song and score of each film are nearly as highly anticipated as the films after Goldfinger was released in 1964, the soundscape was not a surprise to Michael Caine, who had actually heard it many months before after living with Barry in London.
While Caine had been considered for the role of Bond, he unfortunately was not cast, but had his own private insight to the series. He lived with fellow actor Terence Stamp for a while before the pair were evicted from their flat, in which Caine asked Barry if he could rent his spare room for a while. But at the time, Barry was spending many sleepless nights trying to compose the score for Goldfinger, with the composer showing the completed tune to Caine one morning at breakfast, who was the first person to ever hear it.
This may sound rather glamorous, but living with musicians is famously the opposite and can sometimes be quite a burden when constantly hearing a cacophony of sounds both morning and night. When asked about this, Caine said, “I was the first person to hear Goldfinger, because John spent all night writing it, and I thought, ‘Is he ever going to stop playing that bloody piano?”
Despite being privy to one of the greatest Bond scores of all time before anyone else, perhaps it was a bit of a kick in the teeth after being in the running for the role, or perhaps Caine would have simply preferred a better night’s sleep.
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