Editing Michael Caine (section)

=== 1950–1963: Acting debut and early roles ===
Caine's film debut was an uncredited [[Bit part|walk-on]] role in ''[[Morning Departure]]'' (1950). A few years later in [[Horsham]], Sussex, he responded to an advertisement in ''[[The Stage]]'' for an assistant stage manager who would also perform bit parts for the Horsham-based Westminster Repertory Company, who were performing at the [[Horsham#Town centre|Carfax]] Electric Theatre.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hiddenhorsham.co.uk/30/electrictheatre.htm |title=Horsham Carfax Electric Theatre&nbsp;– Hidden Horsham |publisher=Hidden Horsham |access-date=17 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821111100/http://www.hiddenhorsham.co.uk/30/electrictheatre.htm |archive-date=21 August 2009 }}</ref> Adopting the stage name "Michael White", in July 1953 he was cast as the drunkard Hindley in the company's production of ''[[Wuthering Heights]]''.<ref name="Caine 2019">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/michael-caine-tales-of-a-jobbing-cockney-34385708.html|title=Michael Caine: Tales of a jobbing cockney|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|date=24 January 2016|access-date=7 February 2019}}</ref><ref>Interview with Mike Ostler by Roxanne Blakelock (15 October 2004) for the [[British Library]] Theatre Archive Project at www.bl.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2012</ref>{{clarify|reason=If Caine was doing his National Service, including combat in the Korean War 1950-53, how could he also pursue an acting career in England?|date=September 2023}} He moved to the [[Lowestoft]] Repertory Company in [[Suffolk]] for a year when he was 21. It was here that he met his first wife, [[Patricia Haines]].<ref>The Actors – Sir Michael Caine Q&A, Indie London at www.indielondon.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2012</ref> He has described the first nine years of his career as "really, really brutal"<ref>Rob Carnevale, The Prestige – Michael Caine Interview, Indie London at www.indielondon.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2012</ref> as well as "more like purgatory than paradise".<ref name="Michael"/> He appeared in nine plays during his time at the Lowestoft Rep at the Arcadia Theatre with Jackson Stanley's Standard Players.

When his career took him to London in 1954 after his provincial apprenticeship, his agent informed him that there was already a Michael White performing as an actor in London and that he had to come up with a new name immediately.<ref name="Caine 2019"/> Speaking to his agent from a [[telephone booth]] in [[Leicester Square]], London, he looked around for inspiration, noted that ''[[The Caine Mutiny (1954 film)|The Caine Mutiny]]'' was being shown at the [[Odeon Cinema]], and decided to change his name to "Michael Caine".<ref name="Caine 2019"/> He joked on television in 1987 that, had a tree partly blocking his view been a few feet to the left, he might have been called "Michael Mutiny". He also later joked in interviews that, had he looked the other way, he would have ended up as "Michael [[One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]".<ref>{{cite news|first=Barry|last=Norman|url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,445597,00.html |title=Michael Caine (I) |work=[[The Guardian]]|location=London, England|date=6 November 1998|access-date=17 October 2009}}</ref> In 1958, Caine played the minor role of a court orderly in a BBC Television adaptation of the story, ''[[The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (play)|The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5473d4de8f7148c3af8a412baf672fa9|title=Sunday-Night Theatre presents: The Caine Mutiny Court Martial|date=June 1958 |publisher=[[BBC]]|accessdate=7 August 2022}}</ref>

Caine moved in with another rising cockney actor, [[Terence Stamp]], and began hanging out with him and [[Peter O'Toole]] in the London party scene after he had become O'Toole's [[understudy]] in [[Lindsay Anderson]]'s [[West End theatre|West End]] staging of [[Willis Hall]]'s ''[[The Long and the Short and the Tall (play)|The Long and the Short and the Tall]]'' in 1959.<ref name="Caine 2019"/> Caine took over the role when O'Toole left to make ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]'' and went on to a four-month tour of the UK and Ireland.<ref name="Caine 2019"/> Caine's first film role was as one of the privates in [[George Baker (British actor)|George Baker]]'s platoon in the 1956 film ''[[A Hill in Korea]]''. The stars of the film were Baker, [[Harry Andrews]], [[Stanley Baker]] and [[Michael Medwin]], with [[Stephen Boyd]] and [[Ronald Lewis (actor)|Ronald Lewis]]; [[Robert Shaw (actor)|Robert Shaw]] also had a small part. Caine also appeared regularly on television in small roles. His first credited role on the BBC was in 1956, where he played Boudousse in the [[Jean Anouilh]] play ''[[The Lark (play)|The Lark]]''. Other parts included three roles in ''[[Dixon of Dock Green]]'' in 1957, 1958 and 1959, prisoner-of-war series ''[[Escape (UK TV series)|Escape]]'' (1957), and the crime/thriller drama ''[[Mister Charlesworth]]'' (1958).

Caine continued to appear on television, in serials ''The Golden Girl'' and ''No Wreath for the General'', but was then cast in the play ''[[The Compartment]]'', written by [[Johnny Speight]], a [[two-hander]] also starring [[Frank Finlay]]. This was followed by main roles in other plays including the character Tosh in ''Somewhere for the Night'', a ''[[Sunday-Night Play]]'' written by [[Bill Naughton]] televised on Sunday 3 December 1961, another two-hander by Johnny Speight, ''The Playmates'', and two editions of BBC plays strand ''[[First Night]]'', ''Funny Noises with Their Mouths'' and ''The Way with Reggie'' (both 1963). He also acted in radio plays, including [[Bill Naughton]]'s ''Looking for Frankie'' on the [[BBC Home Service]] (1963). A big break came for Caine when he was cast as Meff in [[James Saunders (playwright)|James Saunders]]' [[Cockney]] comedy ''Next Time I'll Sing To You'', when this play was presented at the [[New Arts Theatre]] in London on 23 January 1963.<ref>{{cite web|title=Next Time I'll Sing To You|last=Saunders |first=James|url=http://www.jamessaunders.org/jsnext.htm|year=1962|access-date=14 January 2012}}</ref> Scenes from the play's performance were featured in the April 1963 issue of ''Theatre World'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.phyllis.demon.co.uk/theatricalia/14mags/thw60s.htm |title=ROB WILTON THEATRICALIA Theatre World Magazines 1960s |publisher=Phyllis.demon.co.uk |date=4 December 1965 |access-date=26 April 2013 |archive-date=23 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130423105320/http://www.phyllis.demon.co.uk/theatricalia/14mags/thw60s.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>