Non English performances from actors who speak English as a first language

Cafe Society
1

I just commented in another thread on seeing Jodie Foster (who is fluent in French) appearing as a Polish born French woman in the recent French filmA Very Long Engagement. Who are some other actors for whom English is their first language who have appeared in non-English language movies?

I know that William Shatner (pre Star Trek) starred in Incubus, which may be the only movie filmed entirely in Esperanto.

Johnny Depp had a cameo in the French film They Married and Had Many Children Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d’enfants.

Robert Deniro, Bruno Kirby and lots of American character actors spoke the vast majority of their lines in a Sicilian dialect for Godfather 2.

Who are some others?

2

Kristin Scott Thomas has been in a bunch of French movies where she speaks only French, or almost all French.

Fanny Ardent? I think English is her first language but I think she also has been in all-French movies.

3

Peter Coyote spoke French in Bon Voyage

Omar Sharif was spectacular in the French Monsieur Ibrahim. (Though I don’t know if his first language was English.)

Eddie Constantine, an American, was a major star of French films of the 50s and 60s; he also did roles in German.

Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart were both in La Strada. Quinn spoke his own lines, but Basehart was dubbed.

Barbara Steele (born in England) was a major star of Italian films.

4

Well, uh,
<shuffles shamefacedly>

in the Lord of the Rings movies, I think a majority (or close to) of Liv Tyler’s (and possibly others’) lines were in Quenya, and I don’t *think *she’s a native speaker.

I assume also in some of the Star Trek movies, there were Klingon characters who had few or no English lines, but I don’t know if any of them would be considered leads.
For that matter, I guess Ms. Tyler wasn’t really a lead in LOTR.

So, anyway, I return this thread back to the real movie experts.

<slinks away>

5

I might have it backwards about Ms. Ardent now that I think about it - it might be that French is her first language but she has appeared in English-dialogue movies.

6

Ron Perlman was, well, unforgettable in La Cite des Enfants Perdus .