Actors' Accents (Was Re: Episode #0258)

With all due respect to the Nebraskan-born, late, and truly great actor, Marlon Brando, his southern accent as that USAF major in the film "Sayonara" was even worse than the New York City-born, late, great actor Carroll O'Connor's atrocious southern patois as the sheriff in the television version of "In the Heat of the Night."   Ugh!

Of course, the late, lamented (Passaic, N.J. born?) Michael Stoka was always so articualte and refined as Aristede.  (Except, when his character became" overly-excited," and he, unfortunately, lapsed back into his rapid-fire, machine gun-like New "Joisey" accent.  Think Hoboken-born actor Joe Pantoliano in "The Sopranos.")   

 

Hell YES, New Yorkers have accents.  Different ones for each borough, as a matter of fact.

i don't know Rainey go down south they lump Boston and NYC accents together and thanks for clearing that up
i really didn't know NYorkers had accents  LOL...and i have to say you all sound the same you just think you sound different
like Southie and charlestown here  

i don't know Rainey go down south they lump Boston and NYC accents together and thanks for clearing that up
i really didn't know NYorkers had accents  LOL...and i have to say you all sound the same you just think you sound different
like Southie and charlestown here

Jennifer,

I don't know, but Boston "Southie" Dennis Leary and New York City (possibly, the borough of Queens?) Bob "Bob Rooney" O'Connell hardly sound the same to me.  But, then again, Jersey Boy David Henesy (of Glen Ridge, N.J. (?), also hometown of the somewhat "frenetic" Tom Cruise), hardly sounds the same as  Newark, N.J.'s own Robert "Willie, Bad!" Rodan to me).

Bob, Joe Pesci-soundalike!

you all sound the same you just think you sound different like Southie and charlestown here   

Can't say that I agree, *I* can tell the difference between NYC accents by borough (except, as I said earlier, when it comes to Charles).  Guess it's in the "ear of the beholder"? 

Do agree however that sometimes Boston accents sound similar to Brooklyn accents.  Would imagine a Brooklyn boy like our Johnny Karlen would find doing a Boston accent difficult and might even 'slip' back into his Brooklyn accent. 

Would imagine a Brooklyn boy like our Johnny Karlen would find doing a Boston accent difficult and might even 'slip' back into his Brooklyn accent.

ESPECIALLY when John/Willie-boy gets "overly-excited" as in: "I'm telling ya, Barnabas, this guy Blair is no freakin' good at all!"

ESPECIALLY when John/Willie-boy gets "overly-excited" as in: "I'm telling ya, Barnabas, this guy Blair is no freakin' good at all!

Or how about when he's describing the Dream to, is it Julia (?), when he says, "It was like a dog, but it wasn't a DAWG!"    He goes from Southern to Southern Brooklyn in 10 seconds!  LOL! 

Or how about when he's describing the Dream to, is it Julia (?), when he says, "It was like a dog, but it wasn't a DAWG!"    He goes from Southern to Southern Brooklyn in 10 seconds!  LOL!

Yes, indeed, as loyal Dark Shadows fans, I think we all owe John Karlen's old, hometown neighborhood, the pleasant and "pastoral" area known as Red Hook, Brooklyn, a humongous:

Thank You Brooklyn! 

 

I am from the Bronx but never developed a Bronx accent at all.  Some people are surprised that i am a native New Yorker, they seem to think I should be from the midwest.

I am from the Bronx but never developed a Bronx accent at all.  Some people are surprised that i am a native New Yorker, they seem to think I should be from the midwest.

You know, it's funny.  I had a business colleague who I'd speak to regularly on the phone some years ago and I was convinced she was from Brooklyn.  When I finally asked her if she was, she said that she was actually from the Bronx.  She then said sometimes Bronx and Brooklyn accents are mistaken for one another because they sound pretty similar.

On a side note, one of my favorite actors, a guy I've mentioned on this board before-Richard Lynch, is from Brooklyn, and has an accent so strong it arrives 5 minutes before he does (even more than Johnny Karlen), but the very first thing I ever saw him in was an ep of Starsky & Hutch and for whatever reason, he dropped his accent completely for that role and I thought he sounded like maybe a mid-westerner.  Really he had no discernable accent.  Well, years later when I learned he was from Brooklyn I thought, 'well, he must have moved away when he was very young because he doesn't have that wonderful accent'.  Then I saw a re-run of an early movie he did called The Seven Ups and man, did he ever have the accent!    So, I guess through training or whatever, he can drop his native accent at will.  BTW, he does pretty good foriegn dialects too so I guess he did learn that at The Actor's Studio.

On a side note, one of my favorite actors, a guy I've mentioned on this board before-Richard Lynch, is from Brooklyn, and has an accent so strong it arrives 5 minutes before he does (even more than Johnny Karlen), but the very first thing I ever saw him in was an ep of Starsky & Hutch and for whatever reason, he dropped his accent completely for that role and I thought he sounded like maybe a mid-westerner.  Really he had no discernable accent.  Well, years later when I learned he was from Brooklyn I thought, 'well, he must have moved away when he was very young because he doesn't have that wonderful accent'.  Then I saw a re-run of an early movie he did called The Seven Ups and man, did he ever have the accent!    So, I guess through training or whatever, he can drop his native accent at will.  BTW, he does pretty good foriegn dialects too so I guess he did learn that at The Actor's Studio.

Oh, yeah, Richard Lynch in "The Seven-Ups"! How about Tony LoBianco to Mr. Lynch in that memorable 1970s "wise-guy" flick?: "Da guy ewe iced was a cop!"?

Of course, my personal Dark Shadows favorite, actor Bob O'Connell (a/k/a Blue Whale Bartender Bob Rooney/Mooney), sounds just like the real Eddie Egan, or "Popeye Doyle" in the all-time-great "The French Connection."  (In fact, Eddie Egan plays Gene Hackman's and Roy Scheider's superior officer in that Academy Award-winning film.)

I always love the 1797 scene, where Bob O'Connell plays the then-Eagle Tavern proprietor, sounding like he's Archie Bunker in Kelso's Tavern in Queens, N.Y.  Oh, it's TOO  funny!!!  

its funny Bob dennis leary is from the middle part of mass and people here say they can tell the
difference but sorry all new yorkers sound the same to me too

jennifer

Very true!  Not only did Costner NOT do any sort of Brit accent, he acted horribly as well.  IMHO, the man only has a few good turns as an actor, one being Field of Dreams.  He wasn't TOO awful in that one.

And yet, they spent god knows how much trying to find the right cows for some scene (because most viewers care about historically accurate cattle). He actually did try to do an accent in the movie. The problem was that he kept breaking out of it into some kind of midwestern twang.

I would've loved to have seen someone utter some Pittsburghese on DS.
Walk into the coffee shop and ask: "So, can yinz gimme a chipped ham, bawdle of pop, n'at....?"
 

I did get a kick outta a couple of times that Julia slipped some Philly/PA accent on DS...