There’s lots. Orlando Bloom, Kate Winslet, Gary Oldman, Daniel Radcliffe, Alfred Hitchcock, (now deceased) lots more…granted, some of them may come from somewhere else in the UK, but googling it, I found this list of English movie stars.

Jason Statham comes to mind.

‘movie stars’ are people that can not act.
Arnie, Stallone, Eastwood, Willis.
So, no, England does not have a lot of ‘movie stars’

Russell Brand.

Laurence Olivier

@Kropotkin – Jason Statham is actually a great actor. Americans have typecast him into shitty action films (something he hoped wouldn’t happen). It’s an unfortunate waste of talent.

And as someone who watches more British film and TV than American… I really can’t think of someone who stands out as a poor actor that keeps getting roles.

Orlando Bloom might be one, but he’s mostly a Hollywood actor, which I think doesn’t really count for the purposes of this question.

Wait, is someone saying Gary Oldman can’t act?

England is a dark and backward land ruled by a feudal aristocracy whose claim to its position is descent from an 11th century French vassal who himself was a bastard child vaguely related to some earlier Viking raiders. Such a place could never achieve anything of note in the arts or sciences. This question should be censored.

Another: Ian McKellen, who is gay. That shows you what a dark and backward land it is!

Two words, Hugh Grant, i’d say more, but i’m off swearing for the time being.

From The Society for the Proper use of Quotation Marks, what’s the difference between “movie stars” and movie stars?

Peter O’Toole, Dame Judy Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Helen Mirren…I cringe when I watch them on the screen.

@bolwerk Complete nonsense, of course. England contributed to a lot of things. Heck if you want to keep seeing it that way, the British literally invented the United States of America. oh wait, I see your point :p

@Symbeline

You speak falsehoods. God, in the form of the Holy Trinity, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, invented the United States.

Plus the designated hitter, John Adams.

Aww, I like Maggie Smith.

^^ jkng

Jason Statham is a great diver. Acting is different.

@gailcalled heh… there are literally stacks of those stickers in the basement of the restaurant I work at, probably a couple boxes of pens with that design on it as well.

I sense that the UK puts a higher price on great acting as opposed to the hype around movie stars or the creation of stars. I believe that some British actors go to America to enjoy the whole stardom thing. Or, even celebs do, like Posh and Becks (Yawn).

People are not reading the details.

“So, are there famous people that can’t act but star in movies in England?”

@LornaLove :: There is Celebrity Big Brother in the UK. I would say they actually seem to care more about D list celebrities than we do. You know your career is in the hole when you are on Big Brother with Screech.

@Kropotkin could rattle off some great UK porn talent for us.

Rowan Atkinson plays the Black Adder and Mr. Bean. And Patrick Stewart as captain Picard and professor X.

You shut your mouth about Sir Patrick Stewart.

There are actors in England that are more hype than stubstance. Many of the ones named above are great actors. Daniell Radcliff is great. Everyone @gailcalled mentioned is brilliant. I can’t stand Russel Brand. But as far as the Super-Hyped-No-Talent goes, it’s the football teams that have that covered to a much greater extent than Hollywood. Just for a giggle, you can check out a crappy UK online paper’s Showbiz and TV and see what no-talent people you can spot. http://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz-and-tv Their soap-stars are horrendous.

I think that you are right @simone54. We don’t have that big a film industry in the UK so the actors that make movies have a lot of competition for those jobs and only the best will make it. We do make more TV programmes but again I think it’s hard to get a job in one if you are not any good. The only crappy acting I see is on children’s TV programmes. But seeing those child actors growing up over the years, they improve exponentially – for example Tracy Beaker. As did the Harry Potter actors – some the acting in the early movies was very wooden.

However I will say that the trend for reality tv shows is bringing out some majorly untalented people and calling them as stars. They are not and it’s just embarrassing.

I think over here it’s not so much the “movie stars” that fill this particular niche, it’s more like the footballers’ wives and Big-Brother hopefuls. The only talent that any of them actually have is manipulating the press and the public.