What Michael Caine, 93, Looked Like In The '60s

Millennials and Gen Z folks might recognize Michael Caine from "Miss Congeniality," "Batman Begins" and "Tenet," but the British actor became a star in the 1960s. Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, he changed his name to Michael Caine when he started acting in the 1950s, but his role in the 1964 film "Zulu" led to more opportunities. "Zulu" takes place in what is now South Africa in the late 1800s as the British army were at war with the Zulu nation. Caine, born in 1933, was 30 at the time of filming, and he played an aristocratic lieutenant, which was a big deal for someone from a working-class background.

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In a picture from the set of "Zulu", Michael Caine looked pensive as he furrowed his brows and had lines appear across his forehead. The actor had smile lines as well, but the rest of his skin looked pretty smooth. His cheekbones and jawline were more chiseled in his early 30s than they are in his early 90s. Caine's hair was also longer, wavier and had more volume than it does in his later years.

Despite his initial doubts, Michael Caine secured his aristocratic role in "Zulu," and he landed the part of a spy soon after. Caine played Harry Palmer in "The Ipcress File" in 1965 and wore a pair of Yvan glasses by Curry & Paxton, which became part of his signature look. Peter Lynes, the director of Curry & Paxton, discussed the necessity of the thick-rimmed glasses in a 2022 episode of "There Will Be Bond," saying, "This story I've been told is that the reason why Michael wanted to wear glasses was so that it differentiated his Harry Palmer character from Michael Caine." The glasses also helped differentiate Harry Palmer from another famous British spy, James Bond, portrayed at that time by Sean Connery (who actually didn't like the role).

Caine continued playing the British spy for two more years in "Funeral in Berlin" and "Billion Dollar Brain" before taking a nearly three-decade hiatus from the role. Thanks to Caine's look, the image of a spy in thick-rimmed glasses is still closely associated with the genre today. He also wore the Yvan glasses with tinted lenses as Charlie Croker in 1969's "The Italian Job." 

While the glasses were first part of his role as Harry Palmer, Caine started wearing them in real-life, too, cementing his signature style as a bespectacled gentlemen and destroying the Hollywood trend of leading men not wearing glasses. Caine later revealed that the glasses served another purpose: helping shield him from the crowd. He said  (via Facebook), "I somehow felt that I disappeared behind them ... I'm a very shy man, I suppose, although it doesn't seem like that."