Sir Michael Caine mentioned in his last appearance as an actor has been "Best Sellers". Image Source: Giant Freaking Point 

During the BBC Radio show Kermode and Mayo's Film Review on October 15, 2021, English actor Sir Michael Caine, famed for his distinctive South London accent, claimed that his latest film "Best Sellers" is his last on-screen performance. Sir Michael Caine as Harris Shaw stars alongside Aubrey Plaza, Scott Speedman, Ellen Wong, and Cary Elwes in the film, which was released on September 17th, 2021.

"Funnily enough, it's turned out to be what's my last part, actually," Michael Caine, said during the interview. “Because I haven't worked in two years, I have a spine problem that affects my legs. As a result, I have trouble walking. In addition, I wrote a book, or a handful of books, that were published and were well received. So, instead of being an actor, I'm now a writer, which is wonderful since being an actor requires you to get up at half past 6 a.m. and go to the studio. You can start writing as a writer without even getting out of bed”, the legendary actor concluded.

The actor later added that there haven’t been any offers either which is pretty obvious because nobody’s been making any movies I want to do. "But also, I'm 88. There aren't exactly scripts pouring out with a leading man who's 88." As soon as the statement of the actor was released the publications went on to assume that the actor is “retiring”  from acting but his representatives later confirmed to The Wrap that the actor is “not retiring from acting completely”.

A still from "Best Sellers". Image Source: Digital Mafia Talkies

Sir Michael Caine is regarded as one of the outstanding actors in the industry who began his career as a stage actor in the early 1950s before making his big-screen debut in the 1956 war movie "A Hill in Korea”. 1964's "Zulu," where Caine starred as Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead bought the actor international fame and recognition. Although Michael Caine's performance in Zulu was highly appreciated by the audience and the critics and the movie was a major success. But it was the role of Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965) and the title role in Alfie (1966) that made Caine a star of the first excellence. The movie Alfie helped the actor to receive his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance as Alfie Elkins.

Sir Caine starred opposite Shirley MacLaine in the 1966 heist comedy “Gambit” in 1966 and 1969 in “The Italian Job”. With Laurence Olivier in “Sleuth” and Sean Connery in 1975's “The Man Who Would Be King”, he continued to have success. Caine received his first Academy Award for the character of Elliot in Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters", following which he had two further Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in 1972's Sleuth and 1983's Educating Rita. The actor became the ninth highest-grossing box office star and is one of the several actors who were nominated for an Academy Award for acting every decade for five consecutive decades.

In the 1992 Birthday Honours, he was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and in the 2000 Birthday Honours, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his achievements in cinema.

Michael Caine garnered his most recent Best Actor nomination for 2002's The Quiet American, for his role as Dr. Wilbur Larch in Cider House Rules. 'Scrooge' in The Muppet Christmas Carol, pageant teacher 'Victor Melling' in Sandra Bullock's comedy Miss Congeniality, and British agent 'Nigel Powers', the father of Michael Myers' Austin Powers, in the 2002 action comedy Austin Powers in Goldmember is among his other notable performances.

Michael Caine in "Alfie". Image Source: Medium

Sir Michael Caine is a renowned collaborator with Christopher Nolan, and their collaboration began with the 2005 film Batman Begins, in which Caine was cast as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler and trusted confidant. The pair went on to collaborate on two more Batman films, The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), as well as 2006's The Prestige, 2010's mind-bending blockbuster Inception, 2014's Interstellar, 2017's World War II-set Dunkirk, and Tenet. In recent years, he has played Arthur Tressler in Now You See Me and its sequel, as well as a voiced part as suave spy car Finn McMissile in Disney-Cars Pixar's 2 and his role in the film as "Arthur" in Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Vin Diesel reportedly wanted Sir Michael Caine to play Helen Mirren's spouse in future Fast and Furious films, according to rumors. This news is almost certainly another nail in the coffin for the long-awaited Now You See Me 3, which was announced in 2016 but never materialized.

Between 1952 and 1954, the actor was drafted into the British Army's Royal Fusiliers, serving first at the British Army of the Rhine Headquarters in Iserlohn, West Germany, and then on active duty during the Korean War.

Michael Caine in "Tenet". Image Source: Screenrant

Mairi Mackay of CNN had stated once, "Michael Caine has been personifying British cool since the swinging sixties. He has brought some of British cinema's most iconic characters to life and introduced his very own laid-back cockney gangster into pop culture. He doggedly retained a regional accent at a time when the plummy tones of Received Pronunciation were considered obligatory. It is a sweet irony that his accent has become his calling card."

Sir Michael Caine will be seen in the upcoming movie, 'Medieval', which is hitting the theatres next year. He will also be seen collaborating with ace filmmaker Christopher Nolan once again for his upcoming movie Oppenheimer, on J Robert Oppenheimer, the 'Father of the Atom Bomb’, in which Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy is going to play the lead.