Sir Michael Caine has revealed Tom Cruise came to him for advice when he was starting out in Hollywood.
The 91-year-old screen icon has revealed that around the time of the Hollywood star's standout performance in 1981's 'Risky Business', the 'Mission Impossible' star, 62, picked his brain on how to achieve longevity in the acting business.
Caine quipped that whatever it was that he told him didn't do him "any harm" and insists he always knew Cruise was destined for big things.
He told The Sunday Times newspaper: “I turned around and there was this young actor, very polite, asking questions about how not to be just a flash in the pan. That was Tom, probably around the time of Risky Business.
“I can’t remember what I said, but it obviously didn’t do him any harm! There was something special about him. He had a great attitude, this sense of poise. What interests me is that he is really one of the last true stars in movies. People will go to see a film just because he’s in it. Brad Pitt is a star, Morgan Freeman has some of that quality too. There are so few nowadays — not like John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart or Cary Grant.”
The pair have remained friends all these years later, and he was "very touched when his wife, Shakira, Lady Caine, 77, had Tom be a surprise guest at his 90th birthday last March.
He added: “[Shakira] arranged for Tom Cruise to come to my dinner at the River Café as a surprise. I was very touched.”
Caine has starred in more than 160 films over a career that spanned eight decades but retired from acting after last year's 'The Great Escaper' because he doesn’t want to play the “old man”.
He told the BBC's 'Today' programme: "I keep saying I'm going to retire, well I am now, because I figured, I've had a picture which is — I played the lead and it's got incredible reviews. The only parts I'm liable to get now are old men, 90-year-old men, and I thought well I might as well leave with all this. I've got wonderful reviews. What am I going to do to beat this?"
