Iconic Spotlight : Michael Caine, by Terry O’Neill

"Well, for whatever reason, whenever I was working with Michael Caine and there was any down time, I somehow always caught him nodding off, catching forty winks.”

Michael Caine

Michael Caine burst onto the screen after a successful television and stage career landing roles in three consecutive cinematic hits; Zulu , The Ipcress Files and Alfie . “I knew Michael quite well—still do. We’re the same age and were in the same circles. I don’t remember where we were going, but that’s Camilla Sparv in the car with us. She was a wonderful Swedish actress who was married to the head of Paramount Pictures, Robert Evans, for a time. "These two shots were taken around 1966, when Michael was filming Funeral in Berlin , the sequel to The Ipcress Files . He was just great in the lead as Harry Palmer. Michael really embodies the characters he plays. He’s also one of the only actors who can take on a serious role one minute, a thriller the next and then follow up with a comedy. He’s just incredibly gifted. He is also one of only three actors who were nominated for an Academy Award in five consecutive decades. The other two being Jack Nicholson and Laurence Olivier. That’s the level he is at. “I worked with Michael several times over the decades, mainly on film-sets. When you are on set, there is a lot of down time. People think it’s shot after shot with everything timed out to the second. But that isn’t the case. There are a million moving parts, some controllable and some not so much.

Michael Caine

"You spend time waiting for clouds to pass or noise in the background to stop. There’s time waiting for sets to be constructed, people to arrive, make-up to be completed, costumes to be zipped up. If one element is late, it’s a domino effect and you are left sitting there. Well, for whatever reason, whenever I was working with Michael Caine and there was any down time, I somehow always caught him nodding off, catching forty winks.”

Iconic Images and the Terry O'Neill archive offer limited edition, fine-art prints of Michael Caine.

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