Why didn't British actors from the past have to try an American accent?

What about me?!

Deborah Kerr (rhymes with star) did a good American accent a couple of times.

Brit’s have to sound like Americans. Americans have to sound British. It’s the way the world is.

r1 Hayley Mills is another good example.

What does Brit possess? An itchy cooter?

At the time these actors were working, the Mid-Atlantic accent was very prevalent in movies. Of all them, I’d say Cary Grant sounded the most Mid-Atlantic. In movies that featured upperclass Northeast elites, their accents were often imperceptible.

R1 & R4 yes, Hayley Mills played American in Disney's POLLYANNA (set in Vermont) and THE PARENT TRAP (set in California/New England) but she sounds 'veddy English' like she's from 'anotha lahnd.'

She even won a Juvenile Oscar for the former. Ridiculous.

Perhaps that's why they retired that useless award the following year.

Hayley Mills also sounded English when she was supposed to be a Midwestern schoolteacher in the short-lived '80s sitcom "Good Morning, Miss Bliss," set in Indiana.

It was canceled after one season and retooled as "Saved by the Bell."

Mills was dropped and the location changed to California.

Britt's accent sounded Swedish.

It works the other way as well. I was watching "Waterloo Bridge" last night. Robert Taylor was supposed to be from Scotland. No trace of an accent at all.

R10,

The character was a Scottish aristocrat. They are indistinguishable from the English upper class. In any case, Robert Taylor made no attempt to change his American accent.

I think audiences back then wanted to see a particular star in a movie. They didn't need Cary Grant to transform into a character like what Christian Bale does. They wanted to see Cary Grant, hence the lack of effort when it came to accents.

Anne Revere in "National Velvet" didn't even try and won an Oscar.

[quote] Anne Revere in "National Velvet" didn't even try and won an Oscar.

I could’ve won an Oscar for National Velvet without even trying.

OP, do we really?

In the film version of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Julie Andrews played a woman from Kansas who spoke with a British accent, and British actor James Fox played an American man who spoke with such a convincing American accent that this little gayling didn’t know he was British until many years later. I also had the hots way more for Fox than for John Gavin.

One of the biggest misconceptions was that actress Marion Lorne ( Aunt Clara on 'Bewitched') was actually from England. Many thought they detected a British accent from her throughout her career. She was actually born in Pennsylvania.

R16, speaking of John Gavin, his British accent in Midnight Lace with Doris Day is simply atrocious.

Maybe British actors heard tragic attempts like this and with their ears so damaged resolved never to try the reverse with an American accent.

How about Errol Flynn. He wasn't British - he was born in Tasmania, part of Australia - but he did stage work in England and certainly had an accent. Sometimes it was explained, sometimes it wasn't. It never was explained in his contemporary movies set in the U.S.

[quote] he was born in Tasmania

As was I.

Audrey Hepburn in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S.

The character is a Texas hick turned New York City call girl yet she just sounds like your typical twee Audrey.

its called a mid-atlantic accent. it was considered standard for actors in the early to mid 20th century, see Patricia Neal's MAXIM coffee commercial for a heavy mid-Atlantic accent

Contrary to popular belief, many film actors did not adopt the Mid-Atlantic accent: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Bing Cosby, James Stewart, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Marlon Brando, etc.

Glenda Jackson played Patricia Neal with an accent that circled around the mid-Atlantic with many detours back to England.

Bri-ish.