Michael Caine's autobiography "What's It All About" was not only the best autobio I ever read, but it also had quite a few interesting stories about Michael and Roger's friendship. In the world of celebrities, in my opinion, it is rare to hear stories of real friendship, and speaking personally, I am glad that two from my small group of favourite actors happen to be best friends.

In his biography. Michael often mentions Roger as the kind of friend whom you don't have to ask for help, because he'd always offer it first himself.

Here's a small exerpt from the book that describes (in Michael's words) how the two met for the very first time:

The most satisfying and beneficial sign that the play [the Compartment] and I were a success came a little while after it was broadcast. Terry and I were walking along Piccadilly when we saw Roger Moore on the other side of the road. He was already famous in England for the series Ivanhoe, and just like anybody else we were thrilled to see someone famous in the flesh; we were standing there gawking at him when he spotted us and came across the road. We both wondered who he had seen and were looking around to see if there was anybody else behind us, but no, he was walking towards us and he was smiling straight at me. I smiled back nervously and he stopped right in front of me and said: "Is your name Michael Caine?" I told him that it was. "I saw you in the television play "The Compartment", he went on. "I just want to tell you that you are going to be a big star." He shook my hand and walked away, leaving me stunned and delighted. It was the biggest compliment that I'd had since Dennis Price wrote to me.

After thirthy years of friendship with Roger, I can still count the differences between us on one hand, several of which were apparent that first time we met. He was famous, handsome, elegant and generous; I was obscure, ugly, scruffy and mean. I've caught up with him since on at least two counts. And two out of four's not bad.

I love Michael Caine's autobiography. I've read it a number of times over the years and it remains witty, funny and very honest. A must have book in your library!

I have also read this book many times, and enjoyed it immensely. Indeed, the references MC makes about Sir Roger are indeed truthful and wonderful.

And it always amazed me that people in show biz can have such a wonderful and selfless friendship as RM and Michael Caine.

I've never read Michael's book, it sounds good. Next time I visit the library I'll look out for it.

Michael always jokes that he and Roger have similar accents, but Roger lost his when he went to Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Didn't they both at one time have the same agents?

I don't know about that. Has anybody read the book by Sir Roger's PA about him Roger Moore: His Life and Films I think it's called. By Gareth Owen.

I bought it a few years ago, and was v ill over one Christmas, so just read it from cover to cover while recuperating. I thoroughly recommend it.

I personally enjoyed Michael Caine's autobio better than Gareth Owen's book on Roger. It was special to read in MC's own words about his life, it was a very revealing, honest and humorous story to read. There was never a dull moment in it. In fact, I savored every sentence. But Gareth Owen's book on RM was more of a documentary account of RM's movies and TV series with very little said about his life in general and very few anecdotes from the sets, and that disappointed me a little. I wish Roger Moore would write an autobio like that and put to rest some of the gossip that has been going on for years about his life. Besides, the most important part is that Roger himself is a very funny guy with much to tell about the atmosphere on the sets of movies he worked on. MC's book became a best seller with good reason. I think RM's autobio would do the same.  :smt001 What do you think?

Amber, you mentioned that MC said that his and RM's accents are similar. I never noticed this myself. Michael's accent is more Cockney when he doesn't speak posh, and their voices are really different. Wonder what made Michael say that? Maybe just a friend's solidarity, lol?  :smt002 I remember MC said in a video interview that they both came from a similar background. Again, I didn't understand that either, because MC came from a very very poor family who lived in a London slum before the war. RM's family, on the other hand, while also poor, lived in a better neighbourhood. This did confuse me a little. Not important, not just a tiny bit confusing.  :smt017

Sunny, Michael meant that if Roger hadn't had speech training, they would both have very similar accents.

Got to agree with you regarding the book about Roger by Gareth Owen. It's very informative and a good read, but I would love to see Roger write his autobiography in hardback form. I know that he has done something very similar in the past, writing in magazines as serializations. He has a wonderful witty and down-to-earth way of telling his story, and I'm sure it would be extremely popular.

There  was a newspaper article a few years ago that Roger had indeed begun to write, and a lot of info was on a laptop computer. However it got stolen/lost and Roger lost heart to start all over again. Maybe one day ???

I have quite a few pics of Roger and Michael, and will post them very soon. Here's one of my favourites taken at the Fort Lauderdale Festival.



Amber, I have heard about the story of the stolen article. Wonder who could have taken it from RM's computer and why?  :smt017

I knew that Michael meant that their accents would be similar to each other had RM never studied how to speak with a posh accent. I just never heard of anyone ever refering to Roger Moore as "Cockney", even in earlier days. Michael learned to speak proper, too, and used his ability to speak with different accents since the early days of working in a theatre. In fact, no offence to Roger, but MC does better foreign accents than Roger.  :smt002
But I was still surprised, especially after reading biographies on both actors and how different their childhoods were, that MC spoke of the two's background as almost identical.  :smt102

I also wish that RM would write his own bio, but alas I fear he will not. He said once, that he attempted to but both the computer and the backup disk where he started to write it were stolen, and he had something like about 2000 words and felt disheartened and decided not to continue.

More pictures of Michael Caine and Roger Moore's friendship.

From the same event as the pic above:



The following three are from 1999, when the (&^% of Commander Of British Empire was bestowed on RM.

Great pics Sunny, love 'em!

In the second one, noticed Kristina's daughter and Geoffrey's wife in the background.

Michael Caine has been on tv a lot lately promoting his latest movie. He reminds me of Roger a lot in his attitude. Both men are very down-to-earth, not conceited, and "what you see is what you get." Nothing false or ego-ridden.

So true Amber