Michael Caine is now officially Michael Caine, after changing his real name to match his stage name after one too many airport hold-ups.
The 83-year-old British actor, whose real name was previously Maurice Micklewhite, adopted the stage name Michael Caine in 1954. Originally, he adopted the stage name Michael Scott, but changed his stage name after moving to London. He was inspired by a poster for the Humphrey Bogart drama The Caine Mutiny, The Guardian reports.
“I changed my name when all the stuff started with ISIS,” Caine told Yahoo Movies. “An airport security guard would say, ‘Hi, Michael Caine,’ and suddenly I’d give him a passport with a different name on it. I could stand there for an hour. So I changed my name.”
Caine most recently appeared as Arthur Tressler in Now You See Me 2, which hit theaters June 10. He has also signed up for the 2017 comedy Coup D’etat to play General Anton Vincent, an ousted dictator who shows up at the doorstep of a high school girl who wrote to him for a homework assignment.
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