> I think it's because a distinguished British accent (not of the Cockney variety) sounds smooth and therefore more snakelike. A New Jersey accent doesn't sound very intimidating.

Well, in movies it is often more imortant for the villians to be convincingly evil than the good guys to be convincingly good. So you need better actors. A lot of the more famous English Accented Villians came from Shakspearien actors. They were cast as the head villians in the Old Roman Epics because they were good actors, their underlings were then also cast as with English accents for consistancies sake.

Star Wars has English Accented villians because Lucas drew a lot of inspiration from the Roman Epics (still does, who else thought 'Ben Hur' during the Pod Race in TPM?).


Or it could be lingering after effect of the American Revolution, when English Accents were first connected to 'Evil Empires' (Roman Empires, Galactic Empires, etc)

Or I don't know what I'm talking about at all, which is possible.

Sen'Help Help! I'm being repressed!'try