CNN –
Michael Caine, the British film star whose career spanned eight decades and has appeared in films from The Italian Job to The Dark Knight, has confirmed his retirement from acting.
The two-time Oscar winner, who is 90, made the announcement on BBC Radio 4’s Best of Today podcast on Saturday.
“I keep saying I’m retiring,” Caine said, adding, “Well, I am now.”
He confirmed that “The Great Escaper,” which hit theaters earlier this month, will be his final acting gig, saying: “I played the lead and it got incredible reviews.” The only roles I have now are old men – 90-year-old men, or maybe 85, you know – and I thought I might as well go with all that. I’ve gotten wonderful reviews. What will I do to defeat this?”
Caine starred in the film alongside the late Glenda Jackson as Bernard Jordan, a 90-year-old who escapes from a nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France.
“We had a great time making the film and I thought, why don’t we go now?” Caine added.
“The Great Escaper” director Oliver Parker also said on the podcast, “Michael has the ability to transform his performance into something different,” praising his “charisma” and “pure presence.”
Caine began his acting career on stage in the early 1950s before making his film debut in 1956.
Originally named Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr., he adopted the stage name Caine – taken from the 1954 film “The Caine Mutiny” – and later made it legal.
Caine has played secret agents, playboys, adventurers, teachers and murderers.
He portrayed British spy Harry Palmer in five films and rose to fame after his first role in the 1965 thriller drama The Ipcress File.
His next big break came a year later when he appeared as a promiscuous chauffeur in the 1966 romantic comedy Alfie.
Caine received his first Oscar for his supporting role in the 1986 Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters and his second for another supporting role in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules.
He starred opposite Sean Connery in John Huston’s 1975 adventure film The Man Who Would Be King; played a journalist in Vietnam in the 2002 Graham Greene adaptation “The Quiet American”; and portrayed the butler Alfred Pennyworth in the 2008 film “The Dark Knight.”
Caine was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1993 and knighted in 2000.
He has also written books and said on the podcast that he has made 160 films and that he “always wanted to be a writer.” While there will be no more acting, he said, “there will be writing.”
“The thing about making movies is you have to get up at 6:30 in the morning, take a long drive in the damn car and learn your lines and then get there and work until 10 at night,” he said, adding, “You have to do not get up.”