For most Americans of a certain age, this is a typical Englishman (the chap on the left).
No body looks like Jason Statham, hubba hubba 
Really, it seems as though some of these whippersnappers never saw a hippie before–especially of the decadent dandy type. The peoples of the British Isles have always included some with dark hair & dark eyes; blame most of the blondes & redheads on the Anglo, Saxon & Danish riff-raff…
Thanks to bob1212 (are you somebody’s uncle?) for reviving this zombie & giving me the opportunity to link Brand’s rather surprising piece in The Guardian, iinspired by Dame Thatcher’s recent demise.
Damn, the guy can actually write…
Not sure about her smell, but I do have to question her taste
:smack:
just as valid now in 2013 as in 2010
I would use a picture of any Doctor from Doctor Who…except maybe Christopher Eccletson, who was a very different looking Doctor.
As we all know, England has received many immigrants/ invaders since the first human habitation of the island. For most of history, England had been inhabited by a relatively continuous homogenaity of the original stone age settlers. Modern history has changed that, not only in the form of immigrants from all corners of the globe, but also from invaders including the Roman empire, the Celts, the Normans, Scandinavian peoples, etc. On the subject of Mr. Brand’s looks, it is not only his coloring but also the setting of his features, the angles and proportions, etc. that look perhaps Mediterranean or Eastern. Please understand that the issue of ethnicity is not a simple one: it regards self-identity, a people’s disposession of their powers and culture by an outside group, and most mysteriously to the majority of humanity: a person’s or group’s unique conceptual organization of reality, which is the true hidden language that divides us.
Wow. Zombied twice.
My two cents:
Brand’s hair and beard are curlier than your stereotypical Brit, which makes people think he looks like a stereotypical Mediterranean.
Also, he often combines the shaggy-hair-and-beard with a fairly conservative-looking suit and tie. This makes him look like a model in an Italian fashion designer’s ad campaign.
Hey, anyone know the ethnicity of the Crown Princess of Sweden? 
Seriously, I think people would find that the stereotypical “look” of many countries are actually a distinct minority in those places. Most Scots and Irish don’t have red hair either.
:dubious: Before the bronze age, maybe. Though, mind you, before the bronze age, and even well into it, history hadn’t even started yet.
Calling the age of the Romans, and even the Celts (who came to Britain well before the Romans, and were far from being the first wave of invaders), “modern history” is pretty weird.
OK, make that “sometimes”.
One thing I noticed in your set of pictures: He often combines long, shaggy hair with a close-cropped beard. This can make him look like a stereotypical “blue-cheeked” Sicilian.
I have no information as to whether Brand has Welsh ancestry, but if he does, his appearance would be fairly typical of many Welsh.
Going back to the OP, I have to say that (a) he sure looks like a white guy to me and has never looked like anything else and (b) how far back does your parentage in Old Blighty have to go to be considered “100% English”? All 8 Great-grandparents? All 16 great-great grandparents? Back to before the Act of Union?
I look at Russel Brand, I see a European so-called Caucasian, a.k.a. “white guy”, who grooms himself updated Hairy Hippie style. I listen to Russell Brand, and his manner of speech and the vocabulary he uses makes me hear an Englishman. If Russell Brand feels Russell Brand is an Englishman and has lived as an Englishman his whole life, what else is there? “Englishman” is a cultural-national identity, not a genetic marker.
And if the mixing spans the Romans, various flavours of Celts, the Normans, Scandinavian peoples, etc., that’s quite a bit of influences. Took them a while until someone finally figured that if you prevent the invading force from even* landing to begin with *it becomes much more defensible.
He’s clearly from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. 
Really, if you could reach into my brain and pluck out the image of Zaphod Beeblebrox as I was reading those books, you’d have Russell Brand. I’m still gobsmacked he didn’t audition/wasn’t cast in the movie.
Wow, I really don’t think so.
Half-Spanish actress
If you can verify that, you should go edit her wikipedia entry.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/catherinez409657.html
Along with Why Not, I don’t find any evidence of anything other than Welsh and Irish ancestry. More than a few Welsh have a Mediterranean look.
Even accounting for the lousy prosthetic, Wing-Davey didn’t do it for me. Close, but not quite…big…enough. Zaphod has to fill a room with personality and stature. The kind of guy that leaves you just sort of pinned in your chair for a minute after he leaves, feeling a dazed, “whut?” feeling. Brand nails it, just by being himself (or the “himself” that is his public persona.)