It depends what you mean by "start," as Michael Caine (whose name isn't even really Michael Caine, but rather the more ponderous Maurice Micklewhite) took the long, hard road to acting success.

His true start was on the stage, as is the case with so many British film greats, but his breakthrough to fame came in a quick succession of film hits in the mid-1960s.

It started with 1964's "Zulu," a war film in which he had a supporting role as a coddled, upper-class army officer, playing against what we now know as his type -- urban, working-class men who succeed based on skill and brass.

That type was defined in his very next film, "The Ipcress File," his first big starring role. He played counterespionage agent Harry Palmer in the film, the first of many to feature the character. It was intended as the start of a sort of anti-James Bond spy franchise, pitting Caine's unpolished working-man spy as a counterpoint to the posh superspy.

Though that film did launch a series, Caine was quick to branch out to avoid being typecast (reportedly, he chose to have Palmer wear glasses so that he could leave them off in other films to distance himself from the character).

He did it with a bang the next year, 1966, with "Alfie," a romantic comedy in which he stars as a playboy coming to terms with the consequences of his ladies' man life. That film was a critical and popular hit and cemented Caine's position as a leading man with range.

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