“The best movie actor” of all time, according to Michael Caine
He may have recently confirmed his retirement from acting after deciding that 90 years old was a suitable age to call it a day, but Michael Caine almost stepped away from the silver screen decades ago. The star is now firmly fixed as one of the greatest performers of his generation, delivering countless timeless portrayals that have enriched the lives of his audience.
However, it nearly ended much quicker than it should have, with Caine apparently very close to calling it a day when he was in the salad days of his career. That was until the star he described as “the best movie actor I’ve ever come across” changed his mind with a simple conversation.
After showing up to gnaw on the scenery in Steven Seagal’s directorial debut, On Deadly Ground, in 1994, Caine embarked on a two-year sabbatical from acting that he never had any intention of ending. The movie was a particularly bad one, and Caine must have been reminded of the decline he had endured, from being a leading man with theatrical sensibilities to starring alongside Seagal. With this, his idea was to quit acting for good. The icon was happy to focus his energies elsewhere until he ended up befriending Jack Nicholson.
In an interview with Academy of Achievement, the two-time Academy Award winner revealed that his fellow thespian was the one to bring him back: “Jack was the one. When I retired and went to Miami, I wasn’t going to do another movie,” he said. “It was Jack – who I met there, he was living there at that time – we became friends. He said, ‘I’ve got a script called Blood and Wine, and there’s a good part in it for you.'”
Nicholson is known for his persuasive behaviours, but it seemed like Caine would remain resolute. Despite Caine reiterating that he was out of the game, Nicholson persisted: “I said, ‘I’m retired Jack.’ He said, ‘Read it, read it.’ So I read it, and it was great,” he continued. “He was the one who brought me back to working because I hadn’t worked for two years, and I was very happy in Miami with my restaurant and everything.”
The cogs started whirring in Caine’s head, and the reason he’d begun this career in the first place, ‘the bug’ was once again trying to snap at his blood vessels. Thanks to some cajoling, then, Caine returned and admitted, “That’s what started this whole thing again.”
The two silver screen titans played partners in the crime thriller directed by Bob Rafelson, which saw Nicholson’s wayward husband orchestrating a heist with Caine’s safecracker so that he can secure the necessary funds to run away with his mistress, who was played by a rising star named Jennifer Lopez.
Blood and Wine tanked thunderously at the box office but received decent enough notices from critics, with its clear and obvious lasting legacy being the reignition of Caine’s acting spark. As well as describing Nicholson as one of his great friends, the regular Christopher Nolan collaborator also called him “one of the best actors in the world.”
In fact, he went so far as to label the three-time Oscar winner as “the best movie actor I’ve ever come across.” That’s high praise indeed from somebody of Caine’s standing, but the fact he made a point of referring specifically to cinema does give off the impression that he holds Humphrey Bogart in higher esteem. After all, he was named as Caine’s all time favourite actor, and unlike Nicholson, he spent years treading the boards on Broadway.
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