Sir Michael Caine changes name by deed poll over airport security troubles

The actor was born Maurice Micklewhite
Name change: Michael Caine and his wife Shakira Caine
Dave Benett
Emma Powell21 July 2016
The Weekender

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Acting legend Sir Michael Caine has revealed he has changed his name by deed poll after running into trouble at airport security.

The 83-year-old said he is now officially called Michael Caine to prevent questions about why he has Maurice Micklewhite on his passport.

“I changed my name when all the stuff started with ISIS and all that,” The Sun reported him as saying.

Recalling countess conversations with security guards at airports, he explained: “He would say, ‘Hi Michael Caine,’ and suddenly I’d be giving him a passport with a different name on it.

“I could stand there for an hour. So I changed my name.”

The Alfie actor took on the alias in 1954 at the start of his acting career. Caine said his agent told him he couldn’t have the moniker ‘Michael White’ so he took inspiration from Humphrey Bogart and opted for Michael Caine.

Caine said: “One evening my agent said: ‘I’ve got you a job, I’ve got you three days but you can’t call yourself Michael White, so give me another name.’

“I was in a telephone booth in Leicester Square and I was opposite the Odeon and I looked up, and my favourite actor is Humphrey Bogart, and there it was, it said The Caine Mutiny, so I said, ‘Caine! Michael Caine!’”

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His comments come a day after he championed the idea of bringing back National Service in the UK.

Speaking in London at the China Exchange the veteran actor said: "When you train to protect your country then you really belong in it and you are a different sort of person.

"But I don’t think you should be sent off to fight or anything like that. It made men of us in a very short time.”

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