Guy Pearce surprised me
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001602/
And on the opposite end, I was surprised to learn that Anthony Hopkins - A Brit through and through in my mind - has been living in the US since the 70s. More than half his llife, he’s been a US resident.
First I blown away to find out that Hugh Laurie was British, then to find out he was basically a slap-stick comedian! *Blackadder *was OK - season one gets off kinda slow then picks up brilliantly - but go back I particularly like him in Jeeves and Wooster
And I have here, on my desk as we speak, what I think is his one and only book - a detective/spy novel called ‘The Gun Seller’. Haven’t gotten around to reading it yet tho…
Check out A Bit of Fry and Laurie, if you haven’t yet. Seriously. It’s the best British sketch comedy since Python.
Jamie Bamber, who played Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica.
Sarah Connor from Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Yes, I was really surprised about him too.
Another guy who surprised me was Cary Elwes after Princess Bride and Glory.
Anna Torv, who plays Olivia on “Fringe”, is another of the Aussies.
Linus Roache who played Bruce Wayne’s father in Batman Begins and now is on Law and Order. He is British.
Charlize Theron is African-American 
Rose Byrne is a big surprise to me, too. I’m a big Damages fan, and it never occurred to me that she is Australian.
I knew about him, because I’d seen him, years earlier, as Archie Kennedy in some of Ioan Gruffudd’s Horatio Hornblower episodes.
A couple of years ago, Showtime had a dramatic series called Brotherhood, about two brothers in Providence, Rhode Island. One was a state legislator and the other was a gangster. One was played by an English actor (Jason Isaacs) and the other by an Australian actor (Jason Clarke). I thought both did a good job with the New England accents.
And John Barrowman was born in Scotland but moved to the US around the age of ten. He was on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross a couple of weeks ago, and came out of the green room speaking with a Scottish accent (because he’d been talking to a Scottish actress there) and then switching to an American accent.
Some years back, there was a TV spy show called “The Agency.” the lead Amercan CIA agent was played by Jason O’Mara, whom I’d assumed was an American of Irish descent.
In one episode, he was going undercover, posing as an IRA terrorist. His Irish brogue was pitiful. It sounded as if he couldn’t decide whether he was an Irishman or a Scotsman! Toward the end of the episode, he encounters a real IRA terrorist, who tells him, “If I ever meet you again, I’ll kill you. And one more thing- DO something about that phony Irish accent of yours!”
It was only later that I found out Jason O’Mara was born and raised in Dublin, and he was DELIBERATELY trying to sound like an Ameircan doing a bad Irish accent.
Reminds me of Stevie Wonder on SNL , in 1 skit he played a really bad Stevie Wonder impersonator and sang way off key.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is doubly awesome in the wake of the Matrix and Lord of the Rings movies.
Anthony LaPaglia is also Australian, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste is *astonishingly *English.
Kind of adds an extra dimension to the series’ title, eh?
[slight hijack] I’m so glad that all of the American born actors are busy working so they have to go overseas to hire for our TV shows. :rolleyes: [/slight hijack]
I guess you haven’t seen “Prick Up Your Ears” then. This actor continues to puzzle me with every role.
I wouldn’t have guessed it by his accent, but the name is certainly a giveaway.
What is it with “Without A Trace?” Isn’t Marianne Jean-Baptiste British, also? She was in “Secrets and Lies.”
I’ve seen Stephen Moyer in other things, so his nationality doesn’t surprise me. But I totally lost it when I first heard Ryan Kwanten speaking in his “natural” accent. Wha?!?
With such typical Anglo names as those, who’d’ve ever guessed? 
Anthony LaPaglia has already been mentioned, so I’ll go with the guy who plays Christian Troy on Nip/Tuck. Although with a name like “Julian McMahon”, it should have been a fairly obvious.
Naomi Watts is actually British, but I can only imagine her speaking with an American accent.
J.
Actually, most of the cast did a good a job with Rhode Island accents. Some subtle differences from what you’d hear in Boston. Good show. I didn’t realize the two brothers weren’t Americans.