Sir Michael Caine: My wife saved me - I was drinking a bottle of vodka a day

Sir Michael Caine, the Oscar-winning actor, believes he would have drunk himself to death had he not met his second wife.

The 82-year-old has revealed he was drinking a bottle of vodka a day while also smoking "several packs" of cigarettes.

And the screen icon - famous for films including Zulu, The Italian Job and Alfie - said he would have been dead "long ago" had he not married Shakira Baksh.

He disclosed in an interview that it was Shakira - with whom he has a daughter, Natasha - who "calmed me down" when the pair married in 1973.

"I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day and I was smoking too, several packs a day. I wasn't unhappy but it was stress"

Sir Michael Caine

Sir Michael had previously been married, to the actress Patricia Haines with whom he has a daughter Dominique.

But he credits Baksh - now Lady Caine - with making him a reformed character.

"Without her I would have been dead long ago," he told the Radio Times. "I would have probably drunk myself to death.

"I was a bit of a p*** artist when I was younger, I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day and I was smoking too, several packs a day.

"I wasn't unhappy but it was stress. You know, 'Am I going to get another picture? How am I going to do this part? How am I going to remember all those lines? I've got to get up at 6 in the morning and I hope the alarm works.'

"There was always some stressful thing. Meeting Shakira calmed me down."

"I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day," remembers Sir Michael  Photo: Rex

Sir Michael added: "She's my right-hand man, my confidante. I tell her everything. I was famous when I met her, but I couldn't have got this far without her."

Caine first saw his wife in a 1971 Maxwell House coffee commercial. Through a friend in the advertising business, he managed to track down the woman he considered to be "the most beautiful... he had ever seen," and married in Las Vegas two years later.

In an interview with Telegraph Magazine on Saturday, he revealed he now only drinks wine with dinner.

Sir Michael - who won Oscars for his roles in Hannah and her Sisters and The Cider House Rules - said he cut back on drinking when he married Shakira.

"She didn't say, 'You've got to stop drinking,' but being with her made me want to stay sober and be alive," said Sir Michael.

"And of course she was very anxious for me to stay alive."

However, he claimed he was never going to go of the rails - pointing to two experiences, during his national service, that he suggested were the making of him.

The first was in Korea, when he found himself in combat for the first time.

"I was positive I was going to die and I tested myself for cowardice, because you never know if you're going to run away when the enemy comes. And I didn't. I was OK. I didn't run."

"I never did any drugs. I was never self-destructive, because other people had tried to destroy me. I thank God"

Sir Michael Caine

The second was when he returned from Korea, having contracted cerebral malaria.

"Me and my platoon guys all had it," he said in the Telegraph Magazine interview. "When we got home a man called Colonel Solomons from the American army came from New York, and he was so pleased because he could use us as an experiment.

"They strapped us to a bed for 11 days, with calming injections so we wouldn't go nuts. I nearly died there.

"So with that and Korea, I wasn't about to start drinking myself to death, because I had survived.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? It was the same with dope - I never did any drugs. I was never self-destructive, because other people had tried to destroy me. I thank God.

"He took care of me and I survived. So from a point of view of personality, as a human being, I was very strong."

Meanwhile, Sir Michael is rumoured to be part of a "silver fox" acting dream team that could be assembled to recreate the Hatton Garden robbery on the big screen.

The film, with the working title The Hatton Garden Job, is believed to be in production, with other rumoured actors including Ray Winstone and Sir Sean Connery.

The project is backed by British film maker Metrodome. Its managing director Jezz Vernon told Screen International: "We're currently deep in the legal process to find out what we can and can't include in the film.

"There are a lot of allegations on both sides of the law about additional involvement and wrongdoing that are not in the public domain."

/By Daily Telegraph/