Where is Michael Caine now: 93 and not saying goodbye

If you went to the movies in the seventies, you saw him without knowing it was him. The working-class accent. The thick horn-rimmed glasses. That way of speaking low, as if he were telling just you a secret.

Michael Caine is 93. And he is not done.

The boy who invented his name

He was born on March 14, 1933, in Rotherhithe, a working-class district of south London. His real name was Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. Son of a cook and a fish-market porter.

As a child he was evacuated during the war. As a young man he was drafted and ended up in the Korean War, where he caught malaria. When he could finally act, his agent told him another actor was already called Michael Scott, and he had to pick a new name on the spot.

He was in a phone booth in Leicester Square. He looked around, saw the Odeon marquee advertising The Caine Mutiny, and said: "Michael Caine." Just like that. He later joked that if the tree blocking his view had stood a few feet to the left, he might have been called Michael Mutiny.

He invented the name in a minute. The career took him seventy years.

Eight decades on screen

The breakthrough was Zulu (1964), where he played a posh aristocratic officer —him, the working-class boy—. Then came Harry Palmer, the spy in The Ipcress File, with those same thick glasses that became his signature. Alfie (1966) brought his first Oscar nomination.

And the line everyone quotes, shouted in The Italian Job (1969): "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

The list never ends: Get Carter, Sleuth, Educating Rita (BAFTA), Alfred the butler in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar. More than 160 films.

Two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor: for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and for The Cider House Rules (1999). He is one of the few actors nominated for an Oscar in five different decades. In 2000, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him. Sir Michael Caine, the working-class boy.

He retired… and at 93 said yes again

In October 2023 he announced his retirement. His final film was The Great Escaper, alongside Glenda Jackson. He said it was time. And for two years, it looked true.

Then came Vin Diesel.

In September 2025, Lionsgate confirmed it was developing a sequel to The Last Witch Hunter (2015), the action fantasy where Diesel is an immortal hunter and Caine his ally, the 36th Dolan priest. Caine would come out of retirement to play him again. Diesel confirmed it on social media: the sequel would be called The Lion's Oath, targeting 2026.

In December 2025, Diesel shared photos of the script: the full title would be Kaulder the Immortal – The Lion's Oath. In September 2026 the first set photos of Diesel appeared, beard and sword in hand. The original film had earned 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and $146 million at the box office —an elegant flop— but on streaming it found its audience over ten years. And that audience asked for more.

The friendship between the two is not just on set: in December 2025, at the Red Sea film festival in Saudi Arabia, Diesel presented Caine with an honorary award and wheeled him to the stage. Caine does not hide that he moves with help. At 93, walking is hard. He does not pretend it isn't.

The March scare

On March 14, 2026, Warner Bros. posted an Instagram birthday tribute for his 93rd, with a still from his scene in The Dark Knight Rises. The comments filled with panic: "I thought he had died," "don't scare us like that."

He hadn't died. It was his birthday.

This is not the first time a post about Caine ended in a scare. The lesson is for those of us who publish: with older people, a photo without context reads like a farewell. And for those of us who read: always read the full caption before panicking.

What you can see from the outside

This series' question is not gossip. It is what he did right.

And let me be honest with you: nobody has the recipe for reaching 93 like this. Genes, luck and a good doctor weigh enormously. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.

Just look at what is visible.

First: saying yes to what excites you. At 93, wheelchair nearby, he agreed to return to film for a friend and a story that amuses him. A project that gets him out of bed in the morning.

Second: people. Married to Shakira Baksh since 1973 —more than fifty years—. A friendship with Vin Diesel that crosses generations and wheels him to accept an award. None of this is done alone.

Third: always something in the works. When he is not acting, he writes: memoirs, life advice, even a thriller novel. The pen counts as a project too.

And this part is serious: none of this is medical advice, and he has never said you should live the way he does. Every body is different. But having something that excites you, people close, and something in the works… that has never hurt anyone.