Michael Caine Announces Retirement From Acting

Sir Michael Caine is retiring from acting.

The 90-year-old actor confirmed his retirement — which comes after the Oct. 6 release of his latest, and now final, film The Great Escaper — in a new radio interview on Saturday.

“I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now,” Caine told BBC Radio 4’s Today show. 

“I’ve figured, I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead and it’s got incredible reviews. The only parts I’m likely to get now are old men,” the acting legend explained. “…And I thought, well I might as well leave with all this — what have I got to do to beat this?” 

Representatives for Caine did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for further comment.

Caine’s retirement announcement comes after he hinted at retiring in an interview with The Telegraph last month, where he discussed his new role in The Great Escaper, his age and said he was “sort of” retired. In his final movie role, the actor plays World War II veteran Bernard Jordan who escapes his care home to attend the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in France. 

Caine shared during his latest BBC Radio 4 interview that he believes it’s important old age is portrayed in movies, offering that as part of the reason he has kept acting up until now.

“With me, it’s not quite as diminishing as you think,” he said. “I remember when I was young talking to old men of 90 and they weren’t a little bit like me. They were little tiny old men with humped shoulders…And I thought, I’m not like that and it’s changed.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the two-time Academy Award winner spoke about focusing on writing now that he is retired from movies as he discussed his debut thriller Deadly Game, set to be released in November. 

“I got COVID and I was sat there and I had nothing to do, I couldn’t do any movies, nothing,” Caine recalled of starting the book. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer and I’ve written several biographies. Then I wrote a fiction book…I’m quite amazed (it’s been published).”

When asked if he would ever return to acting, Caine replied, “No. There’ll be writing. I’ll write another book sometime because I so enjoyed writing.”

“The thing about movie-making is that you have to get up at 6.30 in the morning, learn your lines in the bloody car and then get there and work until 10 at night,” the actor explained. “With writing you don’t have to get out of bed — all you need is pencil and paper and you can start!”

Caine added that he is “very happy” in his life with his wife Shakira, 76, and grandchildren, whom he “adores.”

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Caine alluded that he would soon retire in 2021 after the release of his movie Best Sellers. “I have a spine problem, which affects my legs. So, I can’t walk very well,” he said on the BBC Radio show Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review at the time. “I think it would be [my last role].”

“There haven’t been any offers, obviously, for two years, because nobody’s been making any movies I want to do,” Caine added. “But also, there aren’t exactly scripts pouring out with a leading man who’s 88.”

In September, Caine appeared on the red carpet at the premiere of The Great Escaper at BFI Southbank in London where he posed for photos with the cast and director Oliver Parker.