Michael Caine returns to scene of first stage role

Film star Sir Michael Caine was today looking back on 60 years of acting after visiting the village school room where, as a 10-year-old wartime evacuee, he performed his first speaking role.

Sir Michael, 70, returned to his old school in North Runcton, Norfolk, yesterday to commemorate his performance as Baron Fitznoodle in village’s 1943 pantomime, Cinderella.

He had been invited by local newspaper the Eastern Daily Press to unveil a plaque on the building – now a nursery – marking his acting debut and the five years he spent in the village during the Second World War.

The star of films including Get Carter and The Cider House Rules was presented with a piece of stone chipped from the old school – now a nursery – and a framed copy of a school logbook entry relating to him.

He said of his acting debut: “I got a couple of laughs because my flies were undone.”

And he told villagers his ambition to be an actor had been fuelled during his years in the North Runcton, adding: “It was something I knew I wanted to do.”

Sir Michael, who was born Maurice Micklewhite, moved to North Runcton, from his home in Camberwell, south London in 1940.

He lived in a farmhouse, which was home to five evacuee families, with his brother Stanley and his mother Ellen.

Sir Michael spoke fondly of his old headmistress, Miss Linton, and said country air had helped him grow.

“It gained me about a foot in height and it gave me a determination to have a big house,” he said.

“Miss Linton, she took a special interest in me. I was definitely her favourite because she thought I could get a scholarship to grammar school. I was the first one from here to do it for a while. I did not even want to go to school but she made school interesting. She made me read books which is so important.”

He added: “She taught me to play poker when I was seven and how to smoke when I was eight. We were great friends.”

Sir Michael was welcomed by parish council chairman June Leaman and chatted to villagers as he toured his old haunts.

Mrs Leaman said it had been an honour to welcome the actor to the village, adding: “We are so excited. He obviously has many happy memories of his time here.”