How the hell did I not know he’s married to Jamie Lee Curtis, and because of that Jamie Lee is an actual Baroness? Heh, that’s pretty cool. (He’s not a member of the House of Lords though, but he was up until 1999)
How about Cary Elwes?
That was Gavan O’Herlihy. Although he was born in Ireland he speaks with an American accent in interviews I’ve seen. He was also the disappearing Chuck Cunningham in Happy Days.
My family lived in Yorkshire from '83-'85 and my accent – “regular” Yorkshire; I never got the hang of Broad Yorkshire – was impeccable when we left, but I stopped being able to do it at least 20 years ago. 
I’d love to spend some time around Dales folk and see if it would come back, but I can’t imagine any scenario where it wouldn’t seem like I was mocking them.
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I loved that show!
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“In America, a hundred years is a long time. In Europe, a hundred miles is a long way.” - Mark Twain
Even earlier, actually: Guy Fawkes - Wikipedia
Glynis Barber, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! :o
Aha! But is that “Guy,” as you and I would probably pronounce it, or “Guy,” like the ski instructor on Frasier? :dubious: 
“Guy”, as in “Guido”, actually.
His name was Guy. Guido is the Italian version he used while in Spain. Wikipedia also says: “Guy was an uncommon name in England, but may have been popular in York on account of a local notable, Sir Guy Fairfax of Steeton.”
Amy Poehler was pretty good in this SNL sketch.
It’s also how he signed his own name. In England. On his own confessions.
Right, but the name Guy wasn’t based on Guido.
But the name he used up until death might give a clue as to how he, himself, would have pronounced it. I’m willing to bet it wasn’t /ɡaɪ/
Take a look at the Wikipedia entry on sociolinguistics:
And some of the questions/example problems at the bottom of this ThoughtCo. article for some insight into why there are so many dialects in such a relatively small area. It’s probably a good idea to follow links that talk about the difference between accent and dialect.
The TLDR version is, dialects develop when there are divisions between groups of people. These could be physical (mountains and rivers, oceans, plain old distance), ideological (borders between countries, in-group/out-group), or social (class, prestige, peer group).
It takes time for an identifiable dialect to form. In the UK, there have been groups of people with really different linguistic influences living in more or less the same place for a very long time compared to the US (literally thousands of years in some areas of Great Britian, less than 200 in many cases for the predominantly European groups that took over in the Western and Central US states).
About variations in the way individuals speak: The divisions between dialects are always somewhat fluid, and often people will “code-switch” or change the way they speak according to the situation and the listener. Dialects become less fluid when speakers identify more strongly with a group, and more fluid when there are benefits/penalties for fitting in or standing out from a group.
I know the thread is about accurate use of British accents by American actors, but had to mention my favorite bad example - that of Robert Duvall, who played Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. His British accent was somewhere between pathetic and laughable.
Mostly right, except while Northern Ireland is in the UK, it isn’t in Britain. Your main point is entirely correct though, and I think when most Americans think “English accent” they mean RP, or maybe Cockney.
Even within the realm of “English accent” there’s no shortage - West Country, Jordie, Yorkshire, Brummie, etc., all very different.
Uuuuuuuuh…wut?
Anyway, the Canadian Dave Thomas doing Uncle Trevor in “Arrested Development” could’ve used some…polish. And I don’t mean that language, either.
The actor who played Cora in Downton Abbey had a terrible American accent. I didn’t realize that she was supposed to be American for several episodes.
hajario, you’re talking about Elizabeth McGovern. She is American. When she was 30 or 31, she married a British man, and apparently she’s lived in the U.K. since then. Her character Cora Crawley is supposed to have married a British aristocrat when she was 22 and lived in the U.K. ever since then. So she was exactly the right casting - an American who’s lived most of her adult life in the U.K.
That’s funny. I thought she was a Brit doing a terrible American accent. Thanks.