can anyone think of some examples of actors or actresses who starred in american sitcoms, but of whom weren't and aren't american themselves. for example:

sarah chalke- scrubs, roseanne (canadian)
eric mccormack aka will truman- will and grace (canadian)
joseph marcell aka geoffery- the fresh prince of bel air (british)

Jane Leeves - Frasier (British)
Sebastian Cabot - Family Affair (British)

that guy in Courting Alex, hugh bonneville who plays julian (british)

Jane Carr - "Dear John" (British)
Portia de Rossi - "Arrested Development" (Australian)
Mark Addy - "Still Standing" (British)

Joseph Marcell the guy who played geoffrey on the fresh prince was born in the caribbean

Joseph Marcell the guy who played geoffrey on the fresh prince was born in the caribbean

i actually thought he was british because i thought that with the english accent he had, i thought it was genuine and that he hadn't faked it. but i just went on imdb and checked on the site and yep, you're right- joseph is originally from the carribean in st lucia

Mark Addy from Still Standing is from England
Jennifer Irwin from Still Standing is from Canada
Glen Quinn from Roseanne is from Ireland

Mark Addy from Still Standing is from England

yeah i've seen him before. he starred in a british film called 'the full monty' if any of you guys have heard of it.

oh and sean maguire i think, i read that he was once on a sitcom

Desperate Housewives' Nicolette Sheridan is from Great Britain.

Half the cast of Hogan's Heroes wasn't from the US.

Werner Klemperer- Germany
John Banner- Austria
Robert Clary- France
Richard Dawson- England
Leon Askin- Austria

I Love Lucy's, Desi Arnaz was from Havana, Cuba.

Desperate Housewives' Nicolette Sheridan is from Great Britain.

wow, i never knew that

Olivia d' Abo - British
Jane Seymore - British
Michael J. Fox - Canadian

You want to talk about Canadian actors? I'll give you a whole bunch of them!


Eric McCormack "Will & Grace"
Sarah Chalke "Scrubs"
Michael J Fox "Family Ties"
Enrico Colantoni "Just Shoot Me"
Alan Thicke "Growing Pains"
Leslie Nielsen "Police Squad"
Dave Madden "The Partridge Family"
Alan Young "Mr. Ed" (born in England, moved to Canada at age 7)
Yvonne de Carlo "The Munsters"
Pamela Anderson "Baywatch"
Raymond Burr "Perry Mason"
Jim Carrey "In Living Color"
Mike Myers "SNL"
Howie Mandel "Deal Or No Deal"
Dave Foley "NewsRadio"
Norm MacDonald "Norm"
Dave Thomas "Grace Under Fire"
William Shatner "Star Trek"
Martin Short "SNL"
Paul Schaffer "Letterman"
Elisha Cuthbert "24"
Sandra Oh "Grey's Anatomy"
Gloria Reuben "ER"
Al Waxman "King Of Kensington; Cagney & Lacey"

Plus the casts of "SCTV", "Kids In The Hall", "Corner Gas", "Trailer Park Boys"


That's quite an impressive list if I do say so!

Donnelly Rhodes - Canadian (Dutch on Soap)

You want to talk about Canadian actors? I'll give you a whole bunch of them!


Eric McCormack "Will & Grace"
Sarah Chalke "Scrubs"
Michael J Fox "Family Ties"
Enrico Colantoni "Just Shoot Me"
Alan Thicke "Growing Pains"
Leslie Nielsen "Police Squad"
Dave Madden "The Partridge Family"
Alan Young "Mr. Ed" (born in England, moved to Canada at age 7)
Yvonne de Carlo "The Munsters"
Pamela Anderson "Baywatch"
Raymond Burr "Perry Mason"
Jim Carrey "In Living Color"
Mike Myers "SNL"
Howie Mandel "Deal Or No Deal"
Dave Foley "NewsRadio"
Norm MacDonald "Norm"
Dave Thomas "Grace Under Fire"
William Shatner "Star Trek"
Martin Short "SNL"
Paul Schaffer "Letterman"
Elisha Cuthbert "24"
Sandra Oh "Grey's Anatomy"
Gloria Reuben "ER"
Al Waxman "King Of Kensington; Cagney & Lacey"

Plus the casts of "SCTV", "Kids In The Hall", "Corner Gas", "Trailer Park Boys"


That's quite an impressive list if I do say so!
yeah it is impressive. particuarly as the USA and canada are sworn enemies of each other

Just a point of clarification. Desi Arnaz was from Santiago, Cuba. Not from Havana as previously stated. Either way he fits the category!!!:wave:

You want to talk about Canadian actors? I'll give you a whole bunch of them!


Eric McCormack "Will & Grace"
Sarah Chalke "Scrubs"
Michael J Fox "Family Ties"
Enrico Colantoni "Just Shoot Me"
Alan Thicke "Growing Pains"
Leslie Nielsen "Police Squad"
Dave Madden "The Partridge Family"
Alan Young "Mr. Ed" (born in England, moved to Canada at age 7)
Yvonne de Carlo "The Munsters"
Pamela Anderson "Baywatch"
Raymond Burr "Perry Mason"
Jim Carrey "In Living Color"
Mike Myers "SNL"
Howie Mandel "Deal Or No Deal"
Dave Foley "NewsRadio"
Norm MacDonald "Norm"
Dave Thomas "Grace Under Fire"
William Shatner "Star Trek"
Martin Short "SNL"
Paul Schaffer "Letterman"
Elisha Cuthbert "24"
Sandra Oh "Grey's Anatomy"
Gloria Reuben "ER"
Al Waxman "King Of Kensington; Cagney & Lacey"

Plus the casts of "SCTV", "Kids In The Hall", "Corner Gas", "Trailer Park Boys"


That's quite an impressive list if I do say so!also, Lorne Geene from "BONANZA".

Angela Lansbury (Murder She Wrote) - England
Jon Walmsley (The Waltons) - England

I'm suprised noone mentioned Mako in some episodes of "MASH".

Also, George Takei in "STAR TREK".

George Takei was born in California, The only non-americans from Star Trek (TOS) are James Doohan and the previously mentioned William Shatner who are both from Canada.

in sitcom
Jennifer Finnigan : Committed, Close to home (canada)
Cobie Smulders : How i met your mother (canada)
Rachelle Lefevre : Life on a stick, What about Brian, + guest on The CLass, HIMYM, Four King and Veronica Mars (Canada)

in 1 hour comedy
Caroline Davernhas, Jewel Staite : Wonderfalls (canada)
Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite : Firefly (canada)
Laura Harris : Dead like me (canada)
Enrico Colantoni : Veronica Mars (canada)

Roger Rees who played Robin Colcord on Cheers was born in Aberystwyth Wales UK.

This isn't a sitcom, but most of the cast of Without a Trace is non-American born. I think only Eric Close and Enrique Murciano were born in the US.

Anthony LaPaglia- Australia
Poppy Montgomery- Australia
Marianne Jean-Baptiste- England
Roselyn Sanchez- Puerto Rico

You want to talk about Canadian actors? I'll give you a whole bunch of them!


Eric McCormack "Will & Grace"
Sarah Chalke "Scrubs"
Michael J Fox "Family Ties"
Enrico Colantoni "Just Shoot Me"
Alan Thicke "Growing Pains"
Leslie Nielsen "Police Squad"
Dave Madden "The Partridge Family"
Alan Young "Mr. Ed" (born in England, moved to Canada at age 7)
Yvonne de Carlo "The Munsters"
Pamela Anderson "Baywatch"
Raymond Burr "Perry Mason"
Jim Carrey "In Living Color"
Mike Myers "SNL"
Howie Mandel "Deal Or No Deal"
Dave Foley "NewsRadio"
Norm MacDonald "Norm"
Dave Thomas "Grace Under Fire"
William Shatner "Star Trek"
Martin Short "SNL"
Paul Schaffer "Letterman"
Elisha Cuthbert "24"
Sandra Oh "Grey's Anatomy"
Gloria Reuben "ER"
Al Waxman "King Of Kensington; Cagney & Lacey"

Plus the casts of "SCTV", "Kids In The Hall", "Corner Gas", "Trailer Park Boys"


That's quite an impressive list if I do say so!

Don't forget Phil Hartman (Bill on Newsradio). He came from Toronto, Ontario.

John Mahoney (Martin on Frazier) and Charles Shaughnessy (Maxwell on The Nanny) were born in England.

Sofia Vergara (pictured here), who's from Colombia, was on Hot Properties.

Ashley Jensen who plays Christina on Ugly Betty was born in Scotland.

Davy Jones from The Monkees tv show was born in England.

Christina Pickles, who played Judy Geller on Friends, is from England.