Sir Michael Caine CBE (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Jr.; 14 March 1933) is an English film actor. Caine has appeared in more than 100 films, and is one of only two actors to have received Academy Award nominations for acting (leading or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s (Jack Nicholson is the other). He became known for several notable critically acclaimed performances, particularly in the late 1960s, '70s and '80s in films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), Billion Dollar Brain (1967) and others as Harry Palmer, the woman-chasing title character in Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969), Get Carter (1971), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Educating Rita (1983), Academy Award-winning performances for supporting actor in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999), as Nigel Powers in the spoof Austin Powers in Goldmember (2003), and more recently as Alfred Pennyworth, the butler from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Caine was knighted in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to cinema. He is noted for retaining his strong cockney accent.

Caine was born in Rotherhithe, Southeast London, the son of Ellen Frances Marie (née Burchell), a cook and charlady, and Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Sr., a fish market porter. Caine's father was of part Gypsy ancestry and a Catholic, though Caine was raised in his Protestant mother's religion.

He grew up in Camberwell, England, and during World War II was evacuated to North Runcton, in Norfolk. In 1944 he passed his eleven-plus exam, winning a scholarship to Hackney Downs Grocers School. After a year there he moved to Wilson's Grammar School (now Wilson's School) near Camberwell Green which he left at sixteen after gaining a School Certificate in six subjects. He then worked briefly as a filing clerk and messenger for a film company in Victoria Street and the film producer Jay Lewis in Wardour Street. From April 1952 to 1954 he did National Service in the British Army as a Fusilier in the Royal Fusiliers, serving at the BAOR HQ in Iserlohn, Germany and in combat in the Korean War.