Legendary Actor Michael Caine Says He Is “Sort of” Retired Now Due to Mobility Issues

Michael Caine (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception) has confirmed that he is at least partially retired from acting, due to mobility issues. 

In an interview with The Telegraph, Caine didn’t mince words, stating “I am bloody 90 now, and I can’t walk properly and all that. I sort of am retired now.”

Caine recently finished filming the true-story adaptation The Great Escaper, in which he stars as “Bernard Jordan,” an elderly man who escaped from his assisted care home and went on a cross-country journey to attend the 70th Anniversary of WWII’s D-Day campaign in France. Based on that premise, it’s not hard to imagine that Caine had to do as much physical acting as he did dramatic acting. It’s more than understandable, then, that it could be the final major acting role he takes on. 

“I was so happy to do it,” Caine revealed. “I just loved the character of Bernie. I thought he was incredible, and it’s so beautifully written. With Covid and all that, I hadn’t done a picture for three years, and I thought I was finished. And I suddenly did it — and had such a wonderful time.”

At the time of writing this, Caine is set to once again appear as Arthur Tressler in Now You See Me 3; it will be a somewhat pivotal moment to see if Caine indeed returns for the film, and if any scenes he films end up catering to the fact that his mobility is limited. Arthur Tressler could appear seated behind a desk, in a car, etc., or Caine could go meta and simply have his aging character (in an aging franchise) in a wheelchair. 

Great Escaper director Oliver Parker confirmed that they had to take care of Caine (physically speaking) when filming: “We were careful to ensure that Michael wasn’t working too hard, and having to negotiate him moving around at the pace he did. But for him to have returned to acting after not having made a film in a while, and in the way he did, was quite a thing.”

At this point, Sir Michael Caine has more than earned his flowers. His career goes back to the late 1940s(!) and is riddled with iconic entries. From his lothario sex symbol role in Alfie to appearing in the original versions of films like Get Carter and The Italian Job – to cult-hit genre fare like The Swarm, Jaws: The Revenge, On Deadly Ground, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, and enduring favorites like The Man Who Would Be King and the Cider House Rules… Caine was cementing himself as a legend long before modern audiences re-discovered him through Austin Powers: Goldmember, The Dark Knight Trilogy (and other Nolan films), or the Now You See Me franchise. The miraculous thing about film is that preserves an actor’s work and legacy forever – which is exactly what Michael Caine has done. 

The Great Escaper has a theatrical release date of October 6th.