> Joyce Kettren writes
> : .... Ever notice how the CIA figures in the Bond movies are all
> : loud, good ol' boys ? "Hey, JIMBO !!" And Masterpiece Theatre
> : presented a fun 3 parter a few years ago called "Sleepers", about
> : 2 Russian agents planted in Britain who were forgotten for 25 years.
> : The Americans in that show all sounded like cartoon Texans, too. ....
>
> Wasn't their leader played by David Calder?
> I'm aware of only one British actor who can do an American accent
> really well: Bob Hoskins - though I've heard good of Kenneth
> Branagh in that timetravel/reincarnation thing I never saw.
>
> I recently saw a Poirot in which a character says "My lahst shoe!"
> Your last shoe? I thought. Oh, you're supposed to be American
> and you're trying to say "lost".
>
> It's odd that Cary Grant and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been cast
> by and as Americans. Another recent example is Michael Caine in
> _A Shock to the System_.
>
> Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com
>
Bob Hoskins' British origins are detectable, although I agree he does a
wonderful job of playing an American.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, strangely, could very well be an American from
Pennsylvania, or some of the smaller German communities in the mid-west.
As for Cary Grant, I found his accent to be a mish-mash of US and British
sounds. Not completely unheard-of in Blue Nose country. Nex