Michael Harris Caine was born in 1927 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, the son of economist Sydney Caine and his first wife Muriel Ann Maud Harris. He was educated at Bedales and Oxford University, and received a master’s degree from George Washington University.

In 1952 he was appointed to Booker Bros., the wholesale food company, by Jock Campbell, the chairman of Booker and an acquaintance of his father’s. Caine swiftly rose through the ranks, becoming main board director by 1964 and chief executive in 1975. He was a key figure in establishing the Booker Prize, and, influenced by his love of classical Russian literature, inaugurated the Russian Booker Prize.

Caine was deeply involved with several charities focussing on Africa, including the Royal African Society, the Africa Centre, the African Emerging Markets Fund, Africa '95 and the United Kingdom Council for Overseas Students. He was knighted for his philanthropic work in 1988.

Michael Caine married twice: in 1952 to Janice Mercer, with whom he had a son and a daughter, and in 1987 to Emma Nicholson, with whom he fostered Iraqi war orphan Amar Kanim. He died in 1999.