Connery has 'worst accent'
2003-07-01 07:23
London - Scottish actor Sean Connery created the worst accent in the history of cinema in the 1987 movie The Untouchables, according to a poll conducted by British film magazine Empire.
His attempt at pulling off an Irish twang in his Oscar-winning performance as a cop was voted worse than US actor Dick Van Dyke's bid at playing a cockney chimneysweep in Disney's classic family film Mary Poppins (1964).
US actor Brad Pitt came third in the poll, for his role as an Austrian mountaineer in the 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet.
Although James Bond star Connery won a supporting actor Oscar for his role as Jim Malone in Brian de Palma's film The Untouchables, a jury of industry professionals crowned him top of their bad accent list, which appears in the magazine's July issue.
"Whether he's a Russian sub captain (The Hunt For Red October) or even an English King (First Knight and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves), always that baritone Highland burr remains," the verdict read.
In seventh position, Hollywood icon Julia Roberts was singled out for her linguistic performance in the 1996 movie Mary Reilly.
Meryl Streep came 10th for her work in Out of Africa in 1985, where she played the role of Danish writer Karen Blixen, alongside Robert Redford.