Michael Caine and the actor brother who lived (and died) in his shadow: They starred together in The Italian Job. But only one could escape the poverty they'd grown up in While Caine went on to amass a fortune, Stanley's film career foundered and he made ends meet by working in Selfridges in London The brothers had a distant relationship in the final years of his life By Paul Scott Barely 30 miles separate Sir Michael Caine's £10 million mansion in the lush Surrey countryside from the rundown terrace in a West London suburb where Stanley Micklewhite eked out his last years. But the gulf in the respective fortunes of the film legend and his younger brother, to whom he was once so close, couldn't have been bigger. Whereas Michael has personally overseen, at vast expense, the transformation of his 20-acre lawns into something rivalling a stately home, weeds grow through concrete slabs in the tiny paved-over front garden, and paint is flaking off the windows of the modest house in Ruislip where Stanley lived with his wife Marie. Michael Caine at home with his brother Stanley in 1964 - but they had a distant relationship in their later years Movie star Caine - born Maurice Micklewhite - did not attend his brother's funeral a few weeks ago, after he died, aged 77, following years of ill health. Nor was Stanley's passing mentioned on the actor's official Twitter page, despite him having posted a heartfelt tribute to his friend, film director Michael Winner, who died around the same time. Indeed, news of Stanley's death only emerged last week just as - with poignant irony - his brother was being honoured by the opening of an exhibition at the Museum of London, commemorating his life and work, to coincide with his 80th birthday. Yet there had been a time when Stanley, also an actor, had dreamt of emulating his brother's stardom, even appearing in several of Caine's most famous films, including The Italian Job. Actor Michael Caine talks to his brother Stanley during a break in filming 'Billion Dollar Brain' In London, during the Sixties, they were inseparable, crashing out after long nights of partying at the flat in Chelsea's trendy King's Road that they shared with actor Terence Stamp. But while Caine went on to amass an estimated £50 million fortune, Stanley's film career foundered and he made ends meet by working in Selfridges department store in London. And despite Michael - who lives with second wife Shakira - owning a second grand home in Chelsea Harbour, just a few miles from Stanley's two-bedroom house, the brothers had a distant relationship in the final years of his life. Stanley's widow Marie, 67, is understandably devastated by his death. "The grief is only just hitting me," she told me at their home this week. We were together 35 years; it's still very raw. She says Michael stayed away from the funeral to avoid a media circus. "We didn't want a big fuss," Mrs Micklewhite added. In fact, a few years before his death, Stanley admitted that he had drifted apart from Sir Michael - a result, he said, of his own battle to stay away from booze. Michael invites us down a lot but [Marie and I] don't drink any more. We'd love to sit there and drink the best wines in the world, but we can't," he said in 2007. Marie added at the time: "We can't be in Michael's party circuit. Michael is one of those people who can have [drink] or leave it. But if you're not that way inclined..." she said, tailing off. The thing is, we were having a drink every day - the older we got, the more it didn't agree with us. Of course, few would have blamed Stanley if he had stayed away from his brother, rather than face the stark reality of just how different his life was from the opulent lifestyle Michael enjoyed. Until his death, Stanley existed on regular small hand-outs from multi-millionaire Caine. In the Eighties, the £95 that the star gave him every week was enough to allow him to give up his job at Selfridges" book department and try to launch a career as a writer, which was sadly unsuccessful. Michael and Stanley Caine in The Italian Job. While Michael's career bloomed, his brother could not emulate his success Although the money had increased in recent years, it was still enough only for the couple to avoid claiming welfare benefits. Yet proud Stanley also turned down offers from his brother to pay for luxury holidays at the exclusive Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados. It would only have been natural if he felt uncomfortable in the constant shadow of his famous sibling. The two boys were brought up in near poverty in a two-room flat in Camberwell, South London, by their father, Maurice Micklewhite, a porter at Billingsgate fish market, and their charlady mother Ellen. Maurice was a gambler and drinker, who regularly frittered away the family's rent and gas money at the bookies or the pub. Times were tough, and malnutrition led to the young Caine - originally named Maurice after his father - being born with rickets. If the boys" mother wanted to give them a treat, she would saw a boiled sweet in half with a bread knife. When war came, Caine and his brother were evacuated to Wargrave in Berkshire, then later to the Grange, a grand house in the Norfolk village of North Runcton, owned by a rich timber merchant, where their mother worked as a cook. It was there that the young Caine developed a taste for the finer things by eating the owner's left-over pheasant and caviar, sneaking sips of red wine and smoking cigar stubs he found in ashtrays. The indefatigable Michael has continued his seven-decade career by starring in the Batman series and the hit sci-fi movie Inception With the family's home flattened in the Blitz, they returned to a prefab in Elephant and Castle, South London, after the war. But, in 1956, when the fledging actor was 23, his father died of liver cancer. Later, in the Sixties, after Caine found fame with films such as Zulu, he bought his mother a large house in Streatham Hill, and a mink coat. But as the actor began to hit the big time, his relationship with his brother suffered. Stanley lost touch with him until a chance encounter changed the course of his life. In his autobiography, Michael, who was knighted in 2000, recalls shopping for a sofa in the London furniture store Heal's in the mid-Sixties. "I asked to see one they had out the back," he writes. Two blokes in overalls heaved it into the showroom for me, one of them turned in my direction and I saw it was Stanley. I was really shocked to see him looking so shabby and felt terrible that he was working so hard to keep his head above water while I was ordering sofas without a second thought. He insisted Stanley move into his London flat and got his brother, who was keen to act, small parts in two of his films, Billion Dollar Brain and Play Dirty. Soon Stanley, who also dropped the surname Micklewhite in favour of Caine, was a fixture alongside his brother at fashionable parties in London during the Sixties, rubbing shoulders with the likes of models Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton and sharing a flat with Terence Stamp and hairdresser Vidal Sassoon. English film actor Michael Caine at home with his mother and brother, 1964. As the actor began to hit the big time, his relationship with his brother suffered Then, in 1969, Stanley was cast as Coco, one of the robbers in The Italian Job, which starred Caine. But his hopes of matching his brother's success came to nothing. While Michael went on to appear in such classics as The Man Who Would Be King and Hannah And Her Sisters - for which he won one of two Best Supporting Actor Oscars - Stanley was forced to take on low-paid shop work again. But their story took another extraordinary twist when they discovered their mother had gone to her grave in 1989 keeping a tragic lifelong secret from them. Before meeting their father, she had become pregnant in 1924. The baby, a son called David, was born in a Salvation Army hospital suffering from epilepsy. To avoid the shame of raising a child out of wedlock, Ellen agreed to put him in a mental asylum. But every Monday of her life, except for the war years, she went out, claiming she was going shopping. Instead, she would secretly visit her son. It was only after she died that it emerged she'd given David pictures of his famous actor half-brother. She took a Bible with her on each visit so she could persuade new staff at the asylum to swear on it that they wouldn't divulge her secret. After a newspaper revealed the heartbreaking story following her death, Michael and Stanley often visited David, who was unable to speak because of brain damage caused by banging his head on the stone floors of the asylum during fits. The actor paid for a nicer room at the care home where David lived until his death in 1992. In recent years, the indefatigable Michael has continued his seven-decade career by starring in the Batman series and the hit sci-fi movie Inception. He's due to appear this year with Morgan Freeman in the bank heist thriller Now You See Me. As for Stanley, who suffered a series of illnesses in his final years, neighbours had become used to his increasingly frail appearance as he came and went from his down-at-heel home. To the very end, a chasm of wealth and success separated Sir Michael Caine and the little brother who so desperately tried to emulate him.