{"id":9837,"date":"2019-03-14T21:27:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T21:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9837"},"modified":"2020-09-02T14:14:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T14:14:31","slug":"michael-caine-recalling-a-class-act-at-the-2000-oscars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9837","title":{"rendered":"Michael Caine: recalling a class act at the 2000 Oscars"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

Spending time with Michael Caine is always a pleasure and since today is his 86th birthday, here’s one of my favourite encounters from 2000.<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013\u00a0It\u2019s ironic that the word on everyone\u2019s lips following Michael Caine\u2019s acceptance speech at the Oscars on Sunday is \u2018class\u2019. It\u2019s a word he\u2019s been battling all his life.<\/p>\n

As a Londoner from the wrong side of the tracks, dropping every \u2018h\u2019 and \u2018g\u2019 in his speech, Caine has run into Britain\u2019s \u201cclass\u201d system at every turn. He has observed that while in the States he is recognised as a successful and critically acclaimed star, among the nobs of the U.K. cultural establishment, he\u2019s regarded as a \u2018Cockney yobbo\u2019.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not true of the British public for whom Caine\u2019s magnanimous display toward his fellow nominees following his win as best supporting actor for \u2018The Cider House Rules\u2019 seems entirely in character. And it didn\u2019t seem to be the case at the annual tea part thrown by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles in Santa Monica on Saturday.<\/p>\n

At one point, in quick succession, he was greeted by three venerable British film directors \u2013 Guy Green (\u2018The Angry Silence\u2019), Ronald Name (\u2018Gambit\u2019) and Ken Annakin (\u2018Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines\u2019 \u2013 who were all quick to congratulate him on his performance in \u2018Cider House Rules\u2019.<\/p>\n

Caine\u2019s response was typical. \u2018Blimey, people ask me what\u2019s happened to the British film industry,\u2019 he grinned. \u2018It\u2019s right here in Santa Monica.\u2019<\/p>\n

Surrounded by hundreds of admires at the packed tea party, Caine recalled the last he won an Oscar for a supporting role in Woody Allen\u2019s \u2018Hannah and her Sisters\u2019 in 1986. He was in the Caribbean working on \u2018Jaws: the Revenge\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019d gone down there to do a couple of days on the movie and it went over,\u2019 he said. \u2018The awards used to be on a Monday and I was back her on the Tuesday but I just couldn\u2019t get back in time. There were no planes, there was nothing.\u2019<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t even get to hear his name called out. The only television set as hand had a dodgy antenna. \u2018I was fiddling with it and just as they said, \u2018The winner is \u2026\u2019 it went crrrrzzzzldd. So I didn\u2019t know. But then I got a phone call immediately. My wife was ringing me so it was all right.\u2019<\/p>\n

He was determined to be in Hollywood this time. He completed \u2018Shiner\u2019, a new gangster boxing picture in London on March 17 and spent the week before the Oscars sitting by the pool. Soon, he heads to Austin, Texas, to begin rehearsals with Sandra Bullock for a comedy, \u2018Miss Congeniality\u2019.<\/p>\n

But he must return to England to receive a lifetime achievement award at the British Film Academy Awards on April 9. He will join a list of recipients that includes Sean Connery, Alfred Hitchcock and, last year, Elizabeth Taylor.<\/p>\n

The presentation will cap a remarkable two years for Caine in which he received a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and his second Oscar. Many British actors and actresses have been favoured by the Academy over the years but Caine becomes only the second British male to pick up two acting Oscars joining Peter Ustinov, who won for \u2018Topkapi\u2019 and \u2018Spartacus\u2019.<\/p>\n

Not even Laurence Olivier managed that. Talk about class.<\/p>\n

This column appeared in The Hollywood Reporter on March 27, 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett Spending time with Michael Caine is always a pleasure and since today is his 86th birthday, here’s one of my favourite encounters from 2000. LOS ANGELES \u2013\u00a0It\u2019s ironic that the word on everyone\u2019s lips following Michael Caine\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[4997,296,4999,4998,1968,936,5000],"class_list":["post-9837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","tag-the-cider-house-rules","tag-academy-awards","tag-guy-green","tag-ken-annakin","tag-michael-caine","tag-oscars","tag-ronald-neame"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9837"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10082,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837\/revisions\/10082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}