10 Examples of the Made-Up Transatlantic Accent

From Katharine Hepburn to Frasier Crane

Published in

Counter Arts

8 min readMar 23, 2023

The Philadelphia Story (1940). Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

When modern viewers watch certain classic black-and-white films, confusion often creeps in: “wait a minute… are these people American or British?”

The source of this confusion is a deliberate, learned style of speech known as the Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic accent. It’s characterized by a posh and melodic delivery, along with an extra emphasis on certain t sounds and the favoring of soft vowel sounds.

Another feature of the accent is non-rhoticity, i.e. the dropping of certain r sounds. Want to try it out? Say, “Now hear this, Charles, I’m charmed” without pronouncing the r’s.

While most accents evolve naturally, the Transatlantic accent was more or less invented by linguists and educators, although it was based largely on an upper-class British accent. The goal was to define a “proper” form of speech that was suitable for high society and theatrical performances. Taught in upper-class boarding schools in early 1900s New England, Mid-Atlantic speech eventually became the standard for several generations of Hollywood stars, politicians, and socialites.

Today, the Transatlantic accent lives on in classic films as well as the occasional snooty throwback TV character.

From US presidents to cartoon villains, here are 10 examples of the Transatlantic accent in all its splendor.

Cary Grant

Film Clip: The Philadelphia Story (1940); via Movieclips

It should be noted that Cary Grant never formally studied the Transatlantic accent. Since he has genuine British roots, some argue that he shouldn’t be considered a Mid-Atlantic speaker. Nevertheless, along with Katharine Hepburn, Grant is widely regarded as the quintessential example of Mid-Atlantic speech.

Grant was born in 1904 in Bristol, England, and moved to the United States at the age of 16. Thus, his accent was a British and American blend, infused with one-of-a-kind pizzazz.

Like Hepburn, Bette Davis, Orson Welles, and other stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Grant’s way of speaking suggested a private school education and a taste for the finer things. The characters he portrayed were often witty, well-dressed, wealthy playboys. As a result, Cary Grant’s unforgettable Mid-Atlantic accent has endured to this day as a blueprint for imitating the out-of-touch rich and famous.

The Simpsons: Montgomery Burns

Charles Montgomery Burns, better known as Mr. Burns, is Springfield’s richest and most powerful citizen. Like many villains in American film and television, Burns has a vaguely foreign, vaguely British accent. However, Mr. Burns is not foreign. Although his birthplace is unspecified, it’s been revealed that he hails from a northern US state, grew up wealthy, and graduated from Yale University in 1914.

The era and circumstances of Mr. Burns’ younger years make the Mid-Atlantic accent a natural fit. While his timbre is unique and doesn’t fit neatly into any one box, it’s fairly close to a classic Transatlantic accent. Mr. Burns speaks with plenty of soft vowels, hard t’s, and posh New England flair.

Katharine Hepburn

The American Film Institute ranks Katharine Hepburn as the greatest female American screen legend of all time. Her star power stems largely from a melodic, aristocratic voice that could be heard once and remembered for a lifetime.

Because the Transatlantic accent was learned, rather than acquired naturally, each speaker brought to it their own unique talent and style. You could be “good” or “bad” at speaking it, and Hepburn was a master. Along with turning her “a’s” into “ah’s” and dropping all the right r’s, Katharine Hepburn used the Mid-Atlantic accent as an instrument that turned dialogue into music. Arguably, the quintessential showcase for the Mid-Atlantic accent was 1940’s The Philadelphia Story, featuring unforgettable verbal sparring and flirting between Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart. A clip from the film is included above.

The Hunger Games: Effie Trinket

Flim Clip: The Hunger Games series; via The Condiment Kings Fridge

In the dystopian Panem nation of The Hunger Games, Effie Trinket represents the Capitol’s privileged elites. Her dainty habits, upbeat attitude, and over-the-top outfits stand in stark contrast to the downtrodden poor who make up most of the Panem population.

Effie speaks in fancy, playful notes. In the Hunger Games universe, she has a “Capitol accent,” but it’s essentially Mid-Atlantic. To develop her voice for the role, Elizabeth Banks has revealed that she imitated dialogue in the classic films The Philadelphia Story and Auntie Mame.

Compared to the roles she researched for inspiration, Banks’ accent was used to establish much darker tones. Like many recent examples of British or Mid-Atlantic accents in film, the Capitol accent is used to portray a wealthy class that is out of touch with the masses to a dangerous and sinister extent.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

FDR was born in New York to a wealthy family. At age 14, he was sent to the Groton Prep School in Massachusetts. This school for young aristocrats was a noted source of the Mid-Atlantic accent’s spread throughout New England and beyond.

Like fellow Presidents William McKinley before him and JFK after him, FDR spoke in a non-rhotic, Mid-Atlantic accent. In his famous delivery of “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” you can detect the dropped r’s, along with a general tone and vocal quality that reflects a learned and deliberate manner of speaking.

Frasier: Frasier Crane

Frasier Crane first appeared as a supporting character on Cheers (1982–93), then was featured as the protagonist on Frasier (1993–2004).

Recent depictions of the Mid-Atlantic accent have taken on darker tones (such as with many Disney villains). However, when Frasier first appeared on screen, the accent was more often played for laughs, to present certain characters as snooty intellectuals. Frasier was a Harvard-educated psychiatrist who still clung to Freudian methods decades after they’d gone out of fashion and still spoke with the widely-abandoned Transatlantic accent.

John Kerry

Former senator and presidential candidate John Kerry has been described as a “Boston Brahmin.” The term has been used since the 1860s to describe members of extremely wealthy New England families. The reputation of a Boston Brahmin involves generational wealth, exclusive social status, private school education, and a sophisticated (if not aloof) manner of speaking. The Mid-Atlantic accent is closely linked to the concept of Boston Brahmins.

Descended from John Winthrop (the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony), Kerry was educated in a New England boarding school, then graduated from Yale in 1966. During his formative years, he picked up heavy traces of the Mid-Atlantic accent, which was already fading from prominence but still relevant in some circles. Although his accent was never exaggerated or full of Hepburn-esque flair, early public speaking recordings (see the clip above) reveal a tendency to favor soft vowel sounds in the trademark Transatlantic style.

Julia Child

Premiering in 1962, Julia Child hosted 206 episodes of The French Chef. The show was enormously popular and is credited with changing the way Americans cooked, making high-quality dishes accessible to the general public. Child went on to enjoy a long and iconic career as a TV host and cookbook author.

An unusual voice helped Julia Child stand out. She’s often mentioned as a Mid-Atlantic accent-bearer, or described as “inspired” by the accent. Like most notable Mid-Atlantic speakers, Child created her own distinctive and memorable way of speaking. Although she wasn’t formally trained in the Mid-Atlantic accent and didn’t follow all of its rules, Child’s charmingly sing-song delivery captured the accent’s essence with an artistic flair that rivaled the classic film stars.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jackie Kennedy brought youth and style to the White House. As the young Miss Jacqueline Bouvier, the future first lady received a boarding school education at Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut, one of the known launch sites for the Mid-Atlantic accent.

Bouvier’s education included learning to speak in a soft, breathy manner, which sounds rather strange today but was surely considered quite sophisticated at the time. At Miss Porter’s School, Bouvier also picked up the lifelong habit of following the standards of Transatlantic speech. The result is an excessively dainty version of the accent, with dropped r’s, soft vowels, and a gentle fluttering from one word to the next.

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal is less of a household name these days, but he was a major public figure between the 1940s and 1980s. Vidal was a novelist, essayist, playwright, actor, political commentator, and political candidate. Educated in a New Hampshire prep school, Vidal was a brilliant public speaker, able to string together long, articulate speeches on the spot. He was also a shining example of the Mid-Atlantic accent, uttering soft vowels, heavily enunciated consonants, and stylishly sliding notes. His accent could almost be confused with pure British.

In 1968, Vidal engaged in a series of political debates against writer William F. Buckley during the Nixon vs. Humphrey presidential election season. The two argued about the Vietnam war and other political issues. These tense discussions are credited with altering the future of American media and debate, turning political commentary into more of a personality-based spectacle than ever before. Modern viewers of these classic debate videos will notice not only the cultural significance of their conversations but also the amazingly posh Mid-Atlantic accents of both men.

Gore Vidal vs William F. Buckley debate; via Thomas G

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