Connery doesn't appear until the final minutes of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but his appearance as King Richard the Lionheart is notable because Connery portrays the English king with his natural Scottish accent. To make it even more ridiculous, the historical King Richard primarily spoke a dialect of French and some historians even speculate that Richard wasn't fluent in English. Richard also died at the age of 41 while Connery was 60 when the movie was released, so the filmmakers obviously weren't trying to make their Richard historically accurate. Connery is certainly regal enough to play a king, but he might as well have been portraying Abraham Lincoln because of all the inaccuracies. To be fair, Connery's accent isn't the worst in the movie (that "honor" goes to star Kevin Costner). Still, Patrick Stewart had some fun at the expense of Connery's performance when he portrayed King Richard with an outrageously thick Scottish accent in the Mel Brooks parody Robin Hood: Men In Tights. Connery previously played the English Robin Hood with his normal accent in 1976's Robin and Marian. He'd also later play King Arthur with a Scottish accent in 1995's First Knight, but this particular cameo definitely stands out since it concludes a movie filled with terrible accents.
Chris McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and has spoken about film and comic books at conferences across the United States. In addition to his work at WhatCulture!, he is a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, MovieBuzzers.com, and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. For more information, visit his website at http://www.chrismckit.com.
