The Continuing Appeal Of Sir Michael Caine - An Overview Of His Career

Such is the appeal of Caine that merely his presence suggests the film will be enjoyable on at least some levels. 'Brown' isn't a great film, but every time Caine appeared on screen, the material is raised to another level.

The same can be said for last year's 'Is Anybody There?', in which Caine played a retired magician slowly developing Alzheimer's. Again, the film isn't brilliant, but Caine brings his role to life through his unique acting style: an effortless, naturalistic form of acting that nonetheless holds enormous power.

Not to put the man down, but it wasn't always this way. His early performances, such as in 'The Italian Job', weren't bad but lacked any real emotion (perhaps the reason for his image as an icon of cool in the 60s).

Then, in 1971, came 'Get Carter', the role of remorseless gangster Jack Carter perfectly mining Caine's tendency to be icy on the screen. Despite the cold-blooded violence and the bleaker than bleak setting, the most enduring image of the film is Caine's dead-eyed stare as he dishes out ruthless vengeance to his brother's murderers. It remains, in my opinion, Caine's best film.

Caine in the classic gangster film 'Get Carter'

The film seemingly gave Caine a shot in the arm, and since then he has steadily improved as an actor to the point where he is now one of Britain's finest. Despite a forgettable patch in the 90s, many of Caine's recent films have been modern classics that fully display his talent.

The roles in point include an aged hippy in modern sci-fi classic 'Children Of Men', an uptight journalist in 'The Quiet American' and sending up his 'cool Britannia' image as Austin Powers' father in 'Goldmember'. And I haven't even mentioned his work with Christopher Nolan yet.

Since working with Nolan on 'Batman Begins' four years ago, Caine has featured in every one of Nolan's three subsequent films - three of them, 'Begins', 'The Prestige' and 'The Dark Knight' being rare examples of quality pictures that also did phenomenally well at the box office ('The Dark Knight' alone made over $1 billion worldwide). They also show Caine on top form in two very different roles (Caine plays the same character in 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight'. As if you didn't know). Their next project together, 'Inception', has yet to be released, but looks just as intriguing as their previous collaborations.

Caine with Gary Oldman and Christian Bale at 'The Dark Knight' premiere

Although most actors in their 70s would be slowing down by now, Caine still continues to make at least a couple of films a year. It's a work ethic that could tire an actor in their 20s but, when Caine, like fellow septuagenarian Clint Eastwood, only continues to improve with age, who's going to stop him?

Long live the King of Cool.