Born Maurice Micklewhite in London’s Elephant and Castle to a charlady and a Billingsgate porter, MICHAEL CAINE has made more than 100 movies including Zulu, Alfie, Educating Rita and Sleuth.

He won Oscars for The Cider House Rules and Hannah And Her Sisters. Now 77, he has published his second autobiography, The Elephant To Hollywood, some 18 years after his first memoir, What’s It All About?.

What prompted you to write that first memoir?

I’D finished with the movies. Producers didn’t know what to do with me. I wasn’t a grandad, but in my late 50s I was too old to be seducing girls of 25.

As you grew older, your career was revitalised with a string of father figure roles, including butler Alfred in the Batman series and playing Nicole Kidman’s dad in Bewitched. How was that?

“I was even Austin Powers’s father. I’m going to be getting the grandfather roles, if I ever get any more movies after Batman (the third in the series starts filming in May).

Why are you growing a beard?

For my role in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, a Jules Verne story, in which I play a grandfather for the first time. I’ll be on location in Hawaii for the winter. It’s a special effects blockbuster for young people. At the end of the movie I fly away on a giant bumblebee – and I think my grandchildren will love that.

What’s it like being a real life grandfather to Taylor, two, and one-year-old twins Miles and Allegra?

Having grandchildren has absolutely and completely changed my life. You give up lots of unhealthy practices because you want to live longer.

You cut down on fatty foods and exercise more. I just want to be around to see them go to school. I’m 77 – I saw recently that Norman Wisdom died and he was 95. I’ll settle for that. I’ll see the grandchildren into college.

You’ve made more than 100 films, why weren’t they all successful?

If you make a lot of movies, you make a lot of turkeys. I was the first generation of actors whose films you remembered. If you look at John Wayne or Clark Gable they did 140 movies each, but if I asked you to name ten, you’d have a problem. We were the first generation of actors whose turkeys came out on television. Before that, they were just forgotten and you never saw them again. And I was determined to live in England where the taxes were so high that every time I got a tax bill I just did any movie that was going. Some were turkeys, some weren’t. But I was determined not to let income tax lower my standard of living.”

Do you regret any of the films you made?

No. I always knew when I took on one of those movies for money that I had a hit coming out, which would save me and raise my profile. I’m very shrewd like that. So, I made some flops, so what? I bought a fabulous house for my mother from The Swarm. I was broke for 30 years and no one ever gave me a dime. So I don’t have to explain to anybody how I made my money.

You moved back to England from Hollywood after eight-and-a-half years away. How do you feel about California now?

My relationship with Hollywood is over in a way, although I go back sometimes to see friends, but they rarely shoot movies in Hollywood anyway.

You were knighted in 2000, do you expect people to treat you differently?

Being knighted was the greatest honour I’ve ever received, but I don’t make people call me Sir. It’s for me alone. Everyone calls me Michael.

Tell us about your wife Shakira, whom you first saw in a coffee advert in 1973.

I was 38 when I met Shakira and knew she was the one. She was the most beautiful woman in the world, and still is. We’ve always gone on location together. I didn’t want to be apart from her.”

■ The Elephant To Hollywood by Michael Caine (Hodder & Stoughton, £20).