What's it all about, Michael Caine? After a lifetime in the movies, the answer may simply be respect.

Englishman Caine, the working class son of a London fish-market porter and a charlady, once described himself as a nightmare for the bourgeoisie. Why? Because he is, brazenly, "a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars."

He can also now boast of an often-stellar, 47-year film career; a knighthood in June of 2000; two Oscars as best supporting actor; three Oscar nominations as best actor; seven British film award nominations with one win; five U.S. Emmy Award nominations with one win; plus a slew of other citations. Caine has range. He can play your best friend or your worst enemy and make it interesting, even in lesser films.

And still he is driven to seek respect, define his career. It is never enough. Which is why Caine, who turns 70 on March 14, is still working vigorously. Which brings us to Phillip Noyce's remake of The Quiet American, the provocative spy thriller that exploded on the scene at the 2002 Toronto film festival.

That world premiere saved The Quiet American from a quiet, ignominious fate: Straight to video. Instead, buoyed by the Toronto reception, Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein was persuaded to forget his naive, post-9/11 political concerns and embrace the film. As a result, it was released in select U.S. cities in November and December, thus qualifying it for the Academy Awards. The Quiet American returns to the scene of its triumph and opens in Toronto theatres on Friday.

Now there is strong talk that Caine just might garner another Oscar nomination. He has won in support roles for Hannah And Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999). He was nominated as a lead for his dashing breakout film Alfie (1966), for being clever with Laurence Olivier in Sleuth (1972) and then for so determinedly Educating Rita (1983), a winning film which made a star of Julie Walters.

Caine has never hidden his lust for a best actor Oscar, although he recently told USA Today he is loath to talk about it now that there is a distinct possibility he will be in the race: "I don't like talking about the Oscars. I always think it puts the muckers on it, as we say in England."

However, his enormous pride in his work in The Quiet American, which was inspired by the Graham Greene novel, is open for discussion. Caine plays Greene's alter ego, fictional London Times foreign correspondent Thomas Fowler. A lazy, dissolute and sad man in this rendering, Fowler nevertheless loves his life in Saigon, Vietnam, during the 1950s. It is a time when the French are beleaguered and will soon be crushed. And a time when the Americans start to send in their "quiet" spies to protect their selfish interests. It is also a time when Fowler loves his booze and his stunningly beautiful, 19-year-old Vietnamese mistress.

Despite Weinstein's concerns, The Quiet American is not really an attack on U.S. foreign policy, Caine tells The Sun. "It's a spy thriller, a war story and a love story. It's not a political thriller." The film took the dogged Noyce, an Australian, nine years to get in front of the cameras. It was shot on location in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City.

"It's the richest experience I've ever had on a movie," Caine says now. "It was tough. I did it, not for no money, obviously, but not for the money. And I did it for a long time. I'm in practically every foot of film. I never had a day off. I worked my butt off -- and I've never been happier in my life!

"I accomplished what I wanted to do. I made ME disappear and I put Thomas Fowler on the screen. It's all you ever see. I've watched it twice closely now and I look for me in there and I'm not there! Nothing, not even my walk, which is quite idiosyncratic." (Caine's pals, such as Roger Moore, love mocking him with imitations of his typical waddle).

Caine recently told the Sunday Times Magazine that this kind of disappearance is the best an actor can do: "A movie is reality. You shouldn't be sitting there saying, 'Isn't Michael Caine good as Thomas Fowler?' You should be watching Thomas Fowler and forgetting about Michael Caine entirely. The closest I ever came to that before now was Educating Rita. It's taken all this time to do it again. You need a special role."

The role in The Quiet American is so special, Caine willingly hit the road to promote it. "I'm very happy to come here and do this and talk about it because it's the most satisfying picture," Caine told The Sun in Toronto. "I'll go anywhere and do anything for this picture, especially as we've had a little bit of difficulty with it. I hope that's over. I think it is.

"I was always fascinated by Greene's story (which was made into a movie by All About Eve director Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1958 with Michael Redgrave as Fowler and Audie Murphy as the American). When they offered it to me, I couldn't believe my luck! I really couldn't believe my luck. With a script by Christopher Hampton and Phillip Noyce directing, my God, there is a God -- and I thanked Him.

"You know, at my age, parts like that -- leading parts! -- don't come along all the time. I mean, I'm also Austin Powers' dad (Austin Powers In Goldmember), which is fine. It is fun to do. But I'm not Austin Powers, I'm Austin Powers' dad. Here in The Quiet American, I am Austin Powers, you could say. I'm Austin empowered. At my age, 69, I get the girl. That's not bad, eh?"

In life, of course, Caine got the gorgeous girl and kept her. Michael and Shakira Caine celebrated their 30th anniversary on Jan. 8. Their have one daughter, Natasha. (Caine is also the father of Dominique (Nikki) Caine from his early first marriage to the late Patricia Haines).

Caine, who was born as Maurice Micklewhite, changed his name on the advice of an agent, borrowing his new surname from The Caine Mutiny. He first appeared on film in an uncredited bit part in the 1956 flick Sailor Beware! after he returned from active combat duty with the British army in Korea. By the 1960s, he was still struggling, doing uncredited small roles in The Bulldog Breed (1960) and The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961). But Zulu (1964) began to change things, especially because he was cast out of his class, in this case as an effete aristocrat serving as an officer.

Then came the plum role of Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965) -- a character he credits as the true "father" and inspiration for Mike Myers' Austin Powers -- followed by his stunning turn as the rapscallion title character in Alfie. That role came to him after Anthony Newley, Laurence Harvey and former flatmate Terence Stamp turned it down.

Luck and skill: A great career was launched, with strong roles in good films such as Gambit (1966), Funeral In Berlin (1966), Play Dirty (1968), Battle Of Britain (1969) and the original Get Carter (1971), which is not to be confused with the horrid remake (2000) in which Caine played a cameo support role to Sylvester Stallone's tough guy Jack Carter.

Caine's career has had its highs and lows, the latter when he slid into limbo and was relegated to TV in the early 1990s (with the notable exception of playing Scrooge in the wonderfully wacky Christmas flick, The Muppet Christmas Carol). Despite the lows, the public has always seemed to embrace Caine himself. And his mature career has been bolstered by well-received recent films such as Little Voice (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999), Quills (2000) and the underrated Last Orders (2001).

"What it is," Caine tells The Sun, "is the style of acting. I always thought there were two styles of acting. In one, the actor holds up a picture and says, 'This is me! I want your opinion. I hope I'm entertaining. I hope you like me.'

"But I hold up a mirror and say, 'This is you!' And you say, 'Jesus, it's me, it IS me.' And then, when you see me, I'm a friend. I'm not some movie star that you don't go near because you think, 'He won't talk to me.' You see me and don't even get excited. People just say, 'Hi, Mike, how are you?' like it's some guy they know. That's what happens to me all the time." And people love him for it.

Unlike some actors who are blase about the effect their movies have on audiences, Caine recognizes the power of emotionally charged movies such as Alfie, in which he played a rough-and-tumble, working-class, London playboy.

"Another reporter was just in here," Caine tells The Sun, and he says, 'You changed my life!' I said, 'Why?' He said, 'Well, I saw Alfie when I was 16.' I said, 'Yeah, that'll do it for you.' So I was a role model. There are movies for a certain age and they say a little something about something."

It is all about respect, after all.


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