Museum of London Celebrates Michael Caine's 80th Birthday

    LONDON, ENGLAND, March 11, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- One of London's most famous sons will this month blow the bloody candles out on his 80th birthday. Born in Southwark on 14th March 1933 as Maurice Micklewhite, Michael Caine is as much prolific actor as iconic Londoner. Renowned for his distinctive cockney accent, Caine was voted London's favourite Londoner in 2008 and said in his acceptance speech: "If you're born in London you're one of the luckiest people on earth. This is a city that I will love to the day I die and I'm so proud to be a Londoner."

Six days before Sir Michael turns 80, the Museum of London opens a four-month exhibition celebrating the life and career of one of cinema's most recognisable faces, a unique talent who burst into the limelight as a soldier in Zulu before taking on myriad roles from Alfie through to Alfred. The free exhibition, which runs from 8th March to 14th July 2013, traces Sir Michael's life from Cockney rebel through to Hollywood legend and inspirational Londoner.

Sir Michael's story is told through a sumptuous selection of never-before-exhibited photographs, classic portraits by David Bailey and Terry O'Neill, and an array of film and audio footage from some of his best-loved movies - including Alfie, The Italian Job, Get Carter, Educating Rita and Hannah and Her Sisters. The result is a wonderful panorama from the life of a man who once said, "I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars."

The Michael Caine exhibition at the Museum of London is one many London events celebrating the birthdays of key cultural figureheads in 2013. Also turning 80 in a bumper cultural year is Yoko Ono, the former wife of The Beatles singer John Lennon, who brings a lifetime of achievement in music, visual art and peace activism to the Southbank Centre in June as she curates the annual Meltdown Festival (14th-23rd June).

Another talent joining the octogenarian ranks in 2013 is the award-winning British architect Richard Rogers, who is the subject of a summer exhibition at the Royal Academy - 'Ideas in Progress' (18th July - 13th October) - to coincide with his 80th birthday.

2013 may mark the 150th anniversary of the London Underground but it's also the 80th birthday of the official Tube map as we know it. Instantly recognisable to Londoners and visitors alike, the Tube map is one of the great design images of the 20th century and is remembered, along with a whole host of Tube-related artwork, at the London Transport Museum's Poster Art 150: London Underground's Greatest Designs, which runs until October.

Travellers arriving from outside London to celebrate any of these exciting 80th birthdays can conveniently book their accommodation on LondonTown.com, where there's a wide range of Hotels in London available to suit all budgets.

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