I had been signed to a seven-year contract, but after the completion of the film, the director released me from the contract, saying, "I know you're not, but you gotta face the fact that you look like a queer on screen."

My next role was as a spy (in 1965) and after that, a womanizer (in 1966).

Where is everybody?

In the 1970s, I starred in movies alongside Donald Sutherland, Laurence Olivier, Sean Connery, and Donald Pleasence.

Brian Keith

My choice of roles in the 1980s was frequently criticized. I usually responded with self-deprecating comments about taking parts strictly for the money.

Paul Newman

Looks like I picked a good one this time!

In the 1990s, I found good parts harder to come by. A high point came in 1992 when I played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Oh, wow!

I would never have imagined it from the earlier clues, but The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my favorite versions (along with Mr. Magoo).

Michael Caine

Well done, Bill! It is indeed Sir Michael Caine, CBE.

My remaining clues are below. But first, I urge you all to watch & enjoy this wonderful short excerpt of Michael Caine on The Graham Norton Show, relating how he got advice from John Wayne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tak0W0Zmc7w

In 1999, I won my second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. (The first was in 1986).

The 2000s brought box office success in movies with Sandra Bullock, Robert Duvall, Helen Mirren, Will Ferrell, and Hugh Jackman.

Jude Law said about co-starring with me: "He's a master technician and sometimes he was doing stuff I didn't see, I couldn't register. I'd go back and watch it on the monitor, it was like Oh my God, the amount of variety he's put in there is breathtaking."

In the 2010s, I starred in movies with Leonardo di Caprio, Ann Hathaway, Woody Harrelson, Jane Fonda, and Morgan Freeman.

In 2019, I was cast in a movie with Kenneth Branagh. The film was released in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic after being delayed multiple times. Despite receiving positive reviews, it became a box office disappointment.

I was appointed a CBE in the 1992 Queen's Birthday Honours, and in the 2000 Birthday Honours I was knighted as Sir Maurice Micklewhite (my birth name) by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

You're up, Bill.

Has anybody heard from Bill? Is he OK?

“I know nothing”

Hopefully just having a busy weekend.

Well folks, it looks like Bill has deserted us. Hope everything is alright with him & his family.

For the sake of keeping this game going, I'll jump in again:

I was born in 1946 at a home for unwed mothers. My father's identity has never been confirmed.

For the first three years of my life, I lived with my maternal grandparents, who raised me as their child to avoid the social stigma that accompanied birth outside of wedlock.

Family, friends, and even I was told that my grandparents were my parents, and that my mother was my older sister.

Can’t be Jack Nicholson. I’d heard that this had also been his scenario, but the birth year is all wrong.

I harbored a lifelong resentment toward my mother for never talking to me about my real father, and for leaving me to discover my true parentage for myself.

I occasionally exhibited disturbing behavior at an early age. Once, when I was three years old, my mother woke up from a nap to find herself surrounded by knives from the kitchen, and saw me standing by the bed, smiling.

During high school, I was arrested at least twice on suspicion of burglary and auto theft. But when I reached age 18, the details of those incidents were expunged from my record.

Steven King? Lol

Haha! That's funny! No, not Steven King.