What's It All About?

Front Cover
Random House, Mar 31, 2012 - Biography & Autobiography - 608 pages

From Alfred to Zulu, Michael Caine has been Britain's best-loved actor for half a century.

Now, for the first time, he reveals the truth behind his remarkable life. From his time as an evacuee during the Blitz to his front-line military service in the Korean War, from his early days as an assistant stagehand to becoming Peter O'Toole's understudy, from walk-on parts in local theatres to blowing the bloody doors off with his legendary roles in Zulu and The Italian Job, Caine's life was never simple or easy.

Discussing his little-known childhood and family alongside his hard-fought journey from London to Hollywood, Caine writes with astonishing candour about the good years and the lean years, bringing his unique charm and humour to his anecdotes and memories of a sprawling movie-making career. If you worked in Hollywood in the last few decades, you've probably worked with Michael Caine - and his accounts of his relationships with other superstars, both on and offscreen, make this autobiography essential reading for any fan not just of Michael Caine, but of film in general.

 

Contents

Mummys out
3
Very flat Norfolk
12
What I got for a chocolate bar
31
Noses Off
43
Part
61
If you cant move it paint it
63
You never hear the one that gets you
75
Its only malaria
91
My worst location
307
Elizabeth and me
315
Part Five
335
Shakira
337
Call me Larry
350
Natasha
365
Gucci shoes
373
The Man Who Would Be King
389

Nowhere to go but up
104
Its only a small part
120
Becoming Michael Caine
127
Understudying OToole
137
Raw steaks through the letterbox
146
The first screen test
158
Part Three
167
When the magic happens
169
1500 a week?
184
The two minutes that changed my life
195
Butch cooking
205
Alfie
215
Lemon and Micklewhite
224
Part Four
233
If you want to be a star in America
235
The Elephant to Beverly Hills
251
Cannes
261
Ottos Revenge
269
French hours
281
Bardot tries it on
287
Oh yes a Rolls Royce
298
Biting the customers
407
The Swarm attacks
415
Part
423
Welcome to Beverly Hills
425
Dressed to kill
437
Ma in Beverly Hills
447
The Queen and I
463
How to lose an Oscar
472
Paradise Found
488
Part Seven
501
Working with Woody
503
Moving back
518
Scoundrels
529
In my own write
539
A sting in the tail
547
David
554
Acknowledgements
559
Picture Credits
561
Index
563
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2012)

Michael Caine has starred in over one hundred films, and is one of only two actors to have been nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade since the 1960s. He lives in London and Oxfordshire with his wife, Shakira. He has two daughters.

Bibliographic information