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Sir Michael Caine CBE (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English retired actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades and is considered a British film icon. He has received various awards including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of February 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide. Caine is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades. He has appeared in seven films that featured in the British Film Institute's 100 greatest British films of the 20th century. In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to cinema.

Often playing a Cockney, Caine made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films such as Zulu (1964), Alfie (1966), The Italian Job, and Battle of Britain (both 1969). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Alfie. His first of five appearances as Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965) saw him begin, by wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses, to establish a distinctive visual style, which he used alongside a laconic vocal delivery; these, which he combined with sharp suits in Alfie and The Italian Job, made him a style icon of the 1960s. A trailer for Funeral in Berlin (1965), his second performance as Palmer, described the character as possessing "horn rims, cockney wit and an iron fist". His roles in the 1970s included Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), Sleuth (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977), and California Suite (1978). During the 1980s he received immense critical success with Dressed to Kill (1980), Educating Rita (1983), and Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), the latter earning him his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Caine is also known for his performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), and for his comedic roles in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Miss Congeniality (2000), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), and Secondhand Lions (2003). He received his second Golden Globe Award for Little Voice (1998). In 1999, he received his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Cider House Rules. He continued acting in acclaimed dramas such as Quills (2000), The Quiet American (2002), and Alfonso Cuaron's dystopian drama film Children of Men (2006). Caine portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012). He appeared in several other of Nolan's films including The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and Tenet (2020). He also appeared in the heist thriller film Now You See Me (2013), the action comedy film Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), the Italian drama Youth (2015) and the crime film King of Thieves (2018).

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