Michael Caine's performance as Alfred was adequate, but oddly enough I thought the best and most definitive Alfred on film was Michael Gough.
It's ironic that Caine is an A-list actor who has been nominated for numerous awards, and Gough is a B-actor at best that's been in mostly obscure Hammer films outside of Batman, because I felt Gough was born to play the role. The way he delivered lines like "My dear boy, sometimes it’s a diversion to read such rubbish. Most of the time it’s a waste of time" (to a newspaper boy selling a paper with a headline about "Penguin Man lives in sewer") were classic. Caine made Alfred a very stately and inspirational father figure, but I thought he was way too old to be Alfred to the child Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins (he was the same age as Keaton's Batman, which takes place MANY years later in Batman's life chronology!) and his motivational speeches to Bruce Wayne just sounded too "Hollywood" and scripted. Gough was much more down to earth, believable, and human, plus he had a quirky sense of humor that Caine's Alfred lacked.
