# Most archetypal Englishmen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 20, 2017, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589 "2017-03-20T03:52:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/61 "2017-03-21T21:22:02Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Alistair Cooke probably gets top marks: erudite, refined, courteous, affable, and with that marvelous accent. Just what every Englishman _ought_ to be. There’s not a trace of England left in Alistair Cooke’s accent at all. He sounded entirely American to us. It was some years before I learned that he was British. Archetypal Englishman? Leslie Howard (whose origins weren’t English at all - nothing more English than the recent immigrant family anxious to fit in) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/62 "2017-03-21T21:23:56Z")
Ray Davies ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/63 "2017-03-22T00:44:33Z")
Ronald Colman. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/64 "2017-03-22T03:31:00Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > There’s not a trace of England left in Alistair Cooke’s accent at all… Yeah, he doesn’t sound like _anything_ these days. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/65 "2017-03-22T15:25:25Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If I might tweak the premise of the thread a little, how about Victoria Coren Mitchell? Seems to have that touch of haughty disdain that that the English do so well. Ooh, ooh … David Mitchell! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/66 "2017-03-22T16:49:28Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > There’s not a trace of England left in Alistair Cooke’s accent at all. He sounded entirely American to us. It was some years before I learned that he was British. Slight tangent: My dear friend, Suzanne, grew up in and around Dublin; she and her husband emigrated to the U.S. about 25 years ago (when they were both in their mid 20s), and have lived in the Chicago area since. A few years ago, Suzanne remarked to me that she no longer has an Irish accent. To my ears, she certainly still does, though it’s certainly not as thick as some that I’ve heard, and I would wager that any American would say that she has some sort of a “British Isles” accent, even if they couldn’t specifically place her as Irish. I asked her why she thought so, and she said that her relatives (who are still back in Ireland) had told her that she now sounded American (and, to their ears, she likely did). A few decades living in the U.S. have attenuated her accent enough that she no longer sounds Irish to the Irish, but she also doesn’t sound American to Americans; I would imagine that the same thing happened with Cooke, who moved to the U.S. in the 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/67 "2017-03-22T17:08:27Z")
George Sanders and Christopher Lee Looking it up I’m surprised to see that Sanders may not be English at all by heritage. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/68 "2017-03-22T17:23:29Z")
[QUOTE=Les Espaces Du Sommeil] **Rob Brydon** also screams “typical Englishman” … And he’s Welsh, I think… [/QUOTE] _Very_ Welsh. I mean he can sing and everything, disqualified. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/69 "2017-03-22T18:43:27Z")
I thought Frank Thornton of AYBS looked like central casting’s idea of an English gentleman. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/70 "2017-03-22T19:34:14Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Ooh, ooh … David Mitchell! I considered him, obviously, but I think his tendency to [overly logical digressions](https://youtu.be/tKweqxWUC38) is rather uniquely his own and not typical of anyone, or anything. I mean, even if you think the archetypal Englishman is eccentric, Mitchell is still eccentric in his own way. He’s a half-bubble off plumb in a direction only he has discovered. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/71 "2017-03-23T03:53:55Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > _Very_ Welsh. I mean he can sing and everything, disqualified. I remember when Sir Richard Burton was interviewed about the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and was asked “What, as an Englishman, you think about the whole thing?” and he calmly said, “Well, first of all, I’m Welsh…” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/72 "2017-03-23T04:20:39Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > Christopher Lee. Peter Cushing? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/73 "2017-03-23T07:05:21Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I considered him, obviously, but I think his tendency to [overly logical digressions](https://youtu.be/tKweqxWUC38) is rather uniquely his own and not typical of anyone, or anything. I mean, even if you think the archetypal Englishman is eccentric, Mitchell is still eccentric in his own way. He’s a half-bubble off plumb in a direction only he has discovered. I’m not talking about his[angry logic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbMv0UkAswI)(although the delightful sheer [pettiness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw) of some of his soapboxes is, IMO, very English) - I’m talking about his actual un-chinny face ([compare him to Webb](http://www.socialbookshelves.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/48238701_jex_740070_de27-1.jpg))and Oxbridge accent. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/74 "2017-03-23T11:30:54Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If I might tweak the premise of the thread a little, how about Victoria Coren Mitchell? Seems to have that touch of haughty disdain that that the English do so well. Oh well if we’re going there … Maggie Smith ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/75 "2017-03-23T13:50:36Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > And I omitted Sean Connery because he’s Scottish! :smack: Yeah, when someone pointed out that Daniel Craig was the “first English James Bond,” I was taken aback – but apparently it’s true, by certain narrow definitions of Englishness (I think it was like Roger Moore is technically Welsh, etc., etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/76 "2017-03-23T14:16:53Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Yeah, when someone pointed out that Daniel Craig was the “first English James Bond,” I was taken aback – but apparently it’s true, by certain narrow definitions of Englishness (I think it was like Roger Moore is technically Welsh, etc., etc.) Roger Moore’s a Londoner, none more English than he. (Timothy Dalton is Welsh though) ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/77 "2017-03-23T15:26:00Z")
Nigel Bruce (old school) Martin Freeman (present day) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/78 "2017-03-23T15:52:36Z")
Patrick (“Steed”) MacNee has already been mentioned several times, but I’ll add my support. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/79 "2017-03-23T16:38:28Z")
Barry Nelson was the first James Bond and he was an American. > **[Who Played James Bond: A Complete History](https://www.007james.com/articles/who_played_james_bond.php)** > > A complete list of all the James Bond actors, from the official series, and unofficial films and spoofs. From Barry Nelson, to Sean Connery, to Daniel Craig. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/80 "2017-03-23T17:23:51Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Roger Moore’s a Londoner, none more English than he. (Timothy Dalton is Welsh though) Quite. I wonder what the writer meant. Moore’s been in tax exile since 1978 – first Switzerland, then Monaco – but so what? Maybe they were just wrong. I swear that’s what they wrote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589.md?page=5)