As a Brit, my favourite Caine roles will probably be slightly different to an American fan or a foreign Caine fan.
Bromhead in Zulu, obviously. Peachy. Harry Palmer. Steiner in The Eagle Has Landed. Caine’s two most Brit-iconic roles however are Charlie Croker and esp. Jack Carter.
In the mid eighties, I spent some time with the Royal Welch Fusiliers exchanging training techniques. They were in the field and after a day on the range with one of the companies, they took me took to the impromptu mess for a drink. They introduced me to their Colonel, “here’s our visiting Yank”. “David Bromhead” he said. The same, I asked? He confirmed that it was and that it ran in the family. He also personally knew every soldier in the battalion and knew many of their parents as well having been to their homes.
David de Gonville Bromhead was his full name.
I like Caine and I think he’s a wonderful actor but I never followed his career closely; I was more into Steve McQueen. I think my favorite role of his is still Zulu. He’s very handsome in that movie and he lost his looks pretty quickly.