Canadians are a bit like the Irish in the sense that neither of us likes being mistaken for our nearest neighbours. So JOE’s here to educate you on some of Canada’s, and not America’s, biggest stars.
Ice hockey, maple syrup and saying ‘sorry’ for no particular reason are just some of the things we think of when we think about Canada. However, when it comes to Canadian celebrities, quite a few people think that even the biggest Canadian stars hail from the USA. So here are five famous Canadians that are regularly mistaken for Americans.
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson is well known for a whole host of things including; her role as C.J. Parker in Baywatch, her various other roles on TV and in movies, her animal rights activism and, who could forget, her Playboy photo shoots. However, there’s one thing she’s not that well known for and that’s being a Canadian.
Pam was born in Ladysmith, British Columbia in Canada, back on July 1, 1967, and she only moved to the USA to further her modelling career when she was 22-years-old. While the avid Pamela Anderson fans who grew up with C.J. Parker on their TV screens might already know that she’s a native Canadian, there are still quite a few people who don’t…
Donald Sutherland
Best known for his roles in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Klute, Don’t Look Now and The Dirty Dozen, along with being the father of 24’s Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland is in fact Canadian, not an American. Donald was actually born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, on July 17, 1935.
While you can argue all day long over Donald’s best feature film appearance, we’ll always love the Canadian actor for playing the role of Hollis Hurlbut in the 1996 episode of The Simpsons called, ‘Lisa the Iconoclast’. In the episode, Hurlbut bans Lisa from the Springfield Historical Society along with “her children and her children’s children” before deciding “for three months.” Classic…
Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd is a comedian, actor, screenwriter and he’s also recorded a few blues songs in his time, but most importantly, Dan is Canadian. He was also one of the main driving forces behind the 80’s classics Blues Brothers and, of course, Ghostbusters, so we have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to Mr Aykroyd.
Dan was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada back on July 1, 1952, and even though the 61-year-old is a permanent resident of the United States, which is why he’s often mistaken for a true-blooded Yankee Doodle, he still maintains his Canadian citizenship like a true patriot.
James Cameron
James Cameron is easily one of the best directors this world has ever seen and that’s due to the fact that he’s created some absolute masterpieces such as The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and Avatar. In case you haven’t guessed by now, James is also a proud Canadian. This makes him one of the only Canadians to feature in the hit cartoon comedy South Park without his head being split in two (see below).
Born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, on August 16, 1954, Cameron is now one of the richest people in Hollywood. However, that’s not much of a surprise seeing as his directorial efforts have grossed a whopping US$6 billion worldwide…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67MRiMT9cnE
Nelly Furtado
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Nelly Furtado has more of a sultry Iberian look to her, rather than a Canadian one, as her parents Maria Manuela and António José Furtado emigrated from the Azores off the coast of Portugal in the late ‘60s.
However, Nelly was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on December 2, 1978, making her as Canadian as maple syrup-covered bacon, topped off with an ice cold Molson Canadian Beer, served on a moose in a snow storm.
So there you have it. Now you’ll have absolutely no reason to mistake our five famous Canadian celebrities as Americans. Having said that, most Canadians are so polite that a lot of them probably wouldn’t care.
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