MICHAEL CAINE MY LIFE IN 10 Pictures

GROWING UP in working-class London, Maurice Joseph Micklewhite's goal was an easy one. "I wanted to be an actor. I just didn't know how to do it." But after a stint in a butter factory and the Korean War, he'd figure it out...once he changed his name.

"The day I became Michael Caine, that was it - I wasn't Maurice anymore, I was a completely different person. And it was amazing. It was fabulous. I got a job and was on my way." Of course, he'd go on to have nearly 170 jobs - from Oscar-winning turns in Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules to bombs like The Swarm and Jaws: the Revenge. Yet for Michael, who turns 90 on March 14, it doesn't matter. "I always said that when I'm old, I want to be sitting there regretting the things I did, not the things I didn't do. And now I'm old. It turns out I don't regret anything at all."

1 1965 ON FILE

For his breakout role in The Ipcress File, Michael saw the perfect way to play his iconic spy Harry Palmer. "I wanted the glasses to be the character, not me. If Harry Palmer wore glasses, then Michael Caine could hide behind them and emerge if the opportunity presented itself - which it did."

2 1966 LOSE ALL

"I was a loser. [And] until I started playing losers, I never became a success," admitted Michael of his star-making turn in Alfie. "I mean, the last line he says, 'What's it all about?' He genuinely doesn't know what the story is. He's a real loser."

3 1972 PARTNER UP 

"The greatest compliment I ever received came while I was working with Sir Laurence Olivier," shared Michael. "We were making Sleuth, and I did a scene with him. When it finished, he looked at me and said, 'I thought I had an assistant. I see I have a partner."