Childhood friends ditched 'broke' Caine

Sir Michael Caine was outcast by his childhood friends - because he was so broke he couldn't even buy his pals a drink in the pub.

The Get Carter star recently confessed he joined a gang in his youth, before finding fame in a string of acclaimed British films in the 1960s.

But the star lost touch with his boyhood friends as he struggled to make it in the movies - because he was too broke to socialise.

He says, "It also gives you a tremendous sense of guilt for those you've left behind, because you shouldn't have left them so far behind. Not everyone's going to be a multi-millionaire movie star, but at least they can get a decent job, and make a decent living and lead a happy life. That's the minimum.

"But some of them never got the chance... I was a broke, out-of-work actor, and I didn't have enough money to buy a round in the pub. So they stopped seeing me. Broke, out-of-work actors are very lonely people. It's the opposite of what you imagine: they blew me out first."

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