Quote:He has a Welsh accent but that gets sidelined when necessary so I don't see why an American accent would be a problem. I do see the fact he's not particularly well known - or American! - being one.
I watched the movie Avatar, and I was surprised to find out Sam Worthington is Australian. I never would have known it if I hadn't had the special Avatar DVD where he was speaking in his own voice. I certainly would like an unknown to portray Straker. Daniel Craig is a distinguished actor, but he seemed to come out of nowhere, and he in my opinion made the 007 role his own. He portrayed Bond closer to Ian Fleming's idea of the role. Sean Connery too, brought Bond alive. Ed Bishop himself could sound totally different, being his fan I had a lot of material he was in. I have an audio tape of him portraying John Kennedy, the late president. When I bought it, I played it, and I was thinking oh great, Bishop isn't even in it, and it said he is. Not until I listened to it more carefully did I realize he was playing Kennedy! He did it so well, he could have probably fooled Jacqueline Kennedy in a phone conversation.
![Shocked Shocked](https://www.shadolibrary.org/yabbfiles/Smilies/shocked.gif)
Bishop also has been Southern, in the movie Lords of Discipline. In several books on tape I own, he's done all kinds of accents and played all kinds of characters, including women, and in Breakheart Pass he sounds just like John Wayne.
So a good actor certainly would be able to make Straker work.
Ed Bishop truly was one of a kind. You know that scene in Priorities, if people were impressed by that, try to see his performance as Edward Banner in Highlander: Diplomatic Immunity. There are some screencaps of the episode on Marc Martin's UFO website.
http://ufoseries.com/films/high.html