Screen legends Michael Caine and Judi Dench have leaned on each other for comfort and company, Globe has learned, as serious health issues haunt their final days. Two-time Oscar winner Michael, 92, uses a wheelchair, while Notes on a Scandal star Judi, 91, is now almost completely blind.

“Michael and Judi have always had a beautiful friendship, but this past year brought them even closer,” a source tells Globe. “Fact is, there aren’t a whole lot of people from their ‘good old days’ that have lived as long as they have. When they want to reminisce or laugh about the madness of their early careers, they really only have each other.”

Caine has notched 174 acting credits since his first gig in a 1946 TV movie, while Judi has 142 acting credits dating back to 1959.

A frail Caine sat in a wheelchair while accepting a prestigious lifetime achievement award recently at the Red Sea International Film Festival, per Daily Mail.

“I kept working until I was 90, which was two years ago, and I thought to myself I’m not going to do anything else because I’ve had all the luck you can get,” said Caine, who recently starred as Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.

Sadly, Judi — who won an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love in 1999 — couldn’t even recognize her old friend Ian McKellen, her costar in a 1979 production of Macbeth, when the two did a joint TV interview recently.

She suffers from age-related macular degeneration and hasn’t appeared in a movie since a cameo in the 2022 Christmas musical comedy Spirited.

Adds the insider: “Not many people can understand what it means to retire when your career is your life’s blood.”

“Michael has been a great help to Judi and someone she’s really leaned on. He gets a lot of support from Judi, too. He says their friendship has helped him keep things in perspective. She has a way of making him laugh even when things seem bleak.”

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