Happy birthday, Sir Michael Caine. The actor formerly known as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr turns 85 on March 14. We celebrate his long and eventful life by recounting 10 of our favourite Caine anecdotes.

1. He was mistaken for a drug dealer

Caine's trademark Cockney accent once made him a suspected drug dealer. At a VIP party in the Philippines, the hostess angrily accused him of selling Class A narcotics to fellow guests. “When I said, ‘No I’m not, why do you ask?’, she replied ‘Then why is everyone calling you My Cocaine?’” Yep, his pronunciation of his own name was what landed him in hot water.

In reality, Caine’s never had much truck with drugs. He smoked a spliff once at a London party during the Sixties and got the hysterical giggles so badly, no taxi would take him home. He had to walk from Mayfair to Notting Hill and swore he’d never do drugs again.

2. He once got through 80 cigarettes and two bottles of vodka per day

Caine lived life hard in his Sixties heyday. He chain-smoked four packs of cigarettes daily, until the starry trio of Tony Curtis, Yul Brynner and Alex “Hurricane” Higgins persuaded him to stop.