Cockney actor Caine arises as a knight

LONDON, England -- Michael Caine, the sardonic actor embraced by Hollywood for his quintessential Britishness, has received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

The honour was bestowed on him just seven months after he launched a bitter attack on the British film industry and the country of his birth.

In April, he stunned an awards ceremony by saying he never felt he belonged in his own country because of his "cockney" accent and working class background.

The Oscar-winning actor reverted to his real name of Maurice Micklewhite -- a fact which not a lot of people know -- for the ceremony.

Officially, he is now Sir Maurice Micklewhite. A royal official said he could, however, call himself Sir Michael if he wanted to.

"I was named after my father and I was knighted in his name because I love my father," he said. "I always kept my real name. I'm a very private and family-orientated person."

"When I go home, I leave Michael Caine the film star with the costumes, the wigs and the props in the studio.

"I've never played a Sir. I think I became a Sir for playing people who weren't Sirs, that's the whole idea of it."

Sir Michael -- or Sir Maurice -- said he was immensely honoured to have been awarded the knighthood.

Moments after kneeling before the Queen to be dubbed a Knight Bachelor for services to drama, he said: "I never imagined that I would get a knighthood -- you don't imagine being a film star either.

"Being knighted is an extraordinary honour for me. It's the recognition of a lifetime. This is the top one. It's like winning an Oscar, you don't expect it."

The son of a London fish porter, Caine, 67, clung stubbornly to his much mimicked accent from the city's working-class districts as he rose to international stardom.

His first big break came in the 1964 adventure epic Zulu but the prolific Caine is best known for his memorable delivery of lines in cult movies like The Ipcress File, The Italian Job and Get Carter.

Now he is a veteran of more than 100 films and has won two Oscars, the second awarded this year for his role in The Cider House Rules. His first Oscar was for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1986.

Caine was awarded the knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June. In 1955 he married the actress Patricia Haines, who has since died, and they had one daughter, Dominique, known as Nikki, before the marriage broke up in 1958.

He remarried in 1973 and with his present wife, Shakira, has a second daughter, Natasha.

Sir Michael owns seven restaurants -- six in London and one in Miami -- which he runs as a "hobby."

Review: The Cider House Rules -- January 3, 2000
Review: Little Voice -- December 4, 1998

Oscar.com: The Official Academy Awards Site
The British Monarchy
Michael Caine, A Biography

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