As a paternal butler in Batman Begins and Nicole Kidman's pop in Bewitched, Michael Caine is summer cinema's father figure.
Did your Cockney roots prepare you to wait on Bruce Wayne?
Perfectly. My mother was a cook in a country house--several, actually, and they all had butlers.
Have you thanked your Bewitched co-star Shirley MacLaine, who gave you your first Hollywood break?
I've always been grateful. She had a choice of leading men ... and she chose me. I was cheap.
You're everybody's onscreen daddy lately.
I am. It all started when I was Austin Powers' father. Next I'm in a...