Connery 'has worst film accent'

Connery is proud of his Scottish roots

Sir Sean Connery has been named the actor with the worst movie accent by a UK film magazine.

Movie buffs at Empire magazine gave Sir Sean top spot for his portrayal of Irish cop Jim Malone in the 1987 film The Untouchables.

Connery won a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in the film.

The Edinburgh-born actor is well-known for his Scottish lilt in numerous film roles.

"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," says the magazine in its August edition.

Dick van Dyke's much-maligned efforts to imitate an east London cockney accent in Mary Poppins gained him second place in the poll.

Younger actors did not escape unscathed either.

Brad Pitt was voted in at number three for his portrayal as an Austrian explorer in Seven Years in Tibet and Heather Graham came in fifth for her role as a prostitute in the Jack the Ripper film From Hell.

TOP TEN WORST MOVIE ACCENTS

1. Sean Connery in The Untouchables (1987)

2. Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964)

3. Brad Pitt in Seven Year in Tibet (1997)

4. Charlton Heston in A Touch of Evil (1958)

5. Heather Graham in From Hell (2001)

6. Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

7. Julia Roberts in Mary Reilly (1996)

8. Laurence Olivier in The Jazz Singer (1980)

9. Pete Postlethwaite in The Usual Suspects (1995)

10. Meryl Streep in Out of Africa (1985)

Source: Empire magazine

Empire's Olly Richards says actors enjoy trying out different accents.

"Putting on a foreign lilt appeals to a star's vanity, giving them the opportunity to inhabit someone a million miles from themselves and prove that they are more than a pretty face," he says.

"Sadly, in most cases, it does the exact opposite," he added.

Other British actors included in the poll were Pete Postlethwaite, who plays Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects and the late Lord Olivier for his "end of pier Jewish accent" in the 1980 remake of The Jazz Singer.