# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 5
**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, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/81 "2017-03-23T17:46:00Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Nigel Bruce (old school) Basil Rathbone? :dubious: I’d add Peter Ustinov, though I believe he was Russian by birth. ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2017, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/82 "2017-03-24T02:10:06Z")
Edward Fox ---
**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 24, 2017, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/83 "2017-03-24T04:40:11Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Oh well if we’re going there … > > Maggie Smith Helen Mirren. Or is she of Russian birth too? :dubious: Hayley Mills. John Mills. Edward Fox, yes! “The Jackal”! ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2017, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/84 "2017-03-24T07:21:18Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > 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. Subtangent: My grandmother was born in Dublin but came to this side at the age of 21. Some decades later, our obviously Irish cab driver guessed she was Irish after some time in the car by the way she pronounced “chickens”. Maybe that word is the shibboleth for a Dubliner. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2017, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/85 "2017-03-24T09:27:28Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > My choice would be **John Cleese** , or at least the characters he plays. For some reason, **Rob Brydon** also screams “typical Englishman”, albeit a more up-to-date version (so not really stereotypical, perhaps). And he’s Welsh, I think… He is. I think it’s pretty hard to hold him up as a quintessential Englishman when he has a very obvious Welsh accent. ---
**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 24, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/86 "2017-03-24T14:27:57Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Helen Mirren. Or is she of Russian birth too? :dubious: Born in London, though her father was Russian, and her surname was originally Mironoff; her father Anglicized their name in the 1950s. ---
**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 24, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/87 "2017-03-24T23:31:13Z")
Has no one mentioned Sir Alec Guinness yet? ---
**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 24, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/88 "2017-03-24T23:40:02Z")
It’s David Niven, really. Witty, urbane, a complete chancer, a soldier - one who skims over his extremely interesting WWII career in only a few paragraphs of his autobiography, a drinker, a bounder, a gentleman. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/89 "2017-03-25T02:22:42Z")
It’s going to be different to every generation (at least outside GB), and depend on the era of films they grew up on. I grew up on World War 2 films, mostly, as well as a few classic nineteenth century-based Disney adventures. There was never a single universal Englishman, because every film had multiple characters. But overall, the most repeated theme was the British “stiff upper lip,” laconic approach to all challenges. Some calm Brit saying “MMm, I suppose we ought to deal with that, then” seemed to be the turning point of most of them. That, or they would express annoyance at “those damn yanks” who would manage to win the battle for them by behaving badly. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/90 "2017-03-25T02:35:20Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Another vote for Patrick MacGee > Geoffrey Palmer > Ken Barrington > James May +1 (G. Palmer) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/91 "2017-03-26T01:33:11Z")
This is still the SDMB, right? How has nobody yet mentioned Patrick Stewart? ---
**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 26, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/92 "2017-03-26T02:04:22Z")
Anthony Quayle? Donald Pleasence? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/93 "2017-03-26T02:15:51Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > This is still the SDMB, right? How has nobody yet mentioned Patrick Stewart? Perhaps because we thought others were better answers? ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/94 "2017-03-26T02:32:45Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > This is still the SDMB, right? How has nobody yet mentioned Patrick Stewart? Pretty sure he’s French. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/95 "2017-03-26T04:12:46Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Pretty sure he’s French. See, that’s my point; _even when he’s French,_ he’s English. Is he running a school for gifted children in New York? Yeah, he’s English. I mean, granted, the guy is English whenever he’s doing the whole Shakespearean thing – and he’s English when he’s in a King Arthur movie or a Robin Hood movie, and he’s dozens of variations on “English” when he’s playing every role in A Christmas Carol – but _he’s English,_ is where I’m going with this. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/96 "2017-03-26T04:42:01Z")
Brian Equator. ---
**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 26, 2017, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589/97 "2017-03-26T09:42:31Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Pretty sure he’s French. The only Frenchman who knows all the lyrics to “Heart of Oak.” 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-archetypal-englishmen/782589.md?page=4)