Gallery: 10 British Celebrities Who Are U.S. Citizens

: Sir Anthony Hopkins is in that rarefied group of British thespians that includes Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Ralph Richardson. So imagine the scandal that arose when the Oscar winner took American citizenship back in 2000. Hopkins admitted to BBC News that there was a “bit of a stir-up” in his native Wales over his newfound national affiliation, but he said, “America has been very generous to me, magnanimous really. I thought it would be good to give something back. It was a decision of the heart.” (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

: A three-time Oscar nominee, a five-time Tony winner, and a 19-time (winless) Emmy nominee, Lansbury certainly ranks among the legendary actresses of stage and screen. The star arrived in America in 1940 at age 14 and became a U.S. citizen in 1951. “I’ve never stopped feeling British,” she told The Independent in 2010. “It’s extraordinary. I’m as American as most Americans are. We’ve all come from somewhere else. I’m an immigrant and therefore I have retained a great deal of my Englishness in the way I conduct my life and in my work ethic.” (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

: After her stints overseeing Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and now both Newsweek and The Daily Beast, Tina Brown is among the few magazine editors to reach household-name status (fellow Brit Anna Wintour would be another). She took U.S. citizenship in 2005. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

: Dual Brit/U.S. citizen Alan Cumming wrote the play I Bought a Blue Car Today about the application process for U.S. citizenship. “You have to swot up on 100 different subjects and then during the test they ask you six questions. I got all six right so the man doing the test looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to do some more?’ Only in America could they make a citizenship test into a game show,” he told Scotsman.com. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

: America, he loves your way: the ’70s hitmaker/heartthrob from South London decided to acquire U.S. citizenship the day after 9/11. He told Anglophenia: “I’d been starting to talk for years that I must become an American citizen because I want to vote. So, I woke up on the 12th and called my immigration lawyer and said, ‘It’s time. We’ve got to do this. Everything’s changed now. Nothing’s the same. I want to have my voice heard.'”(Rex Features via AP Images)

: Tracey Ullman arrived in America in 1987 to launch her eponymous Fox sketch comedy series (which famously spawned The Simpsons). But the Slough-born multi-talent only decided to take American citizenship over 20 years later. In 2008, Ullman told the New York Times that the 2004 U.S. elections made her want to vote, adding: “I’ve invested a lot of time in this country, and my children were born here, and I’ve had a really nice career here. It’s just something you want to do.” (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

: The Scottish pop star had a string of hits in the U.S. in the ’80s – from the innocent “Morning Train (9 to 5)” to the raunchy, Prince-composed “Sugar Walls.” The star, who has made her home in Las Vegas for over a decade, became a U.S. citizen in 1992. (AP Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau, Darrin Bush)

: Jack, erstwhile star of MTV’s The Osbournes and son of Ozzy and Sharon, recently made two big announcements via Twitter. First, he tweeted, “Woah. I just became a US citizen. Don’t worry England I’m still British.” Then he announced that his fiancée was on the verge of giving birth to the couple’s first child. (They welcomed a baby girl, Pearl, on April 24.) (Rex Features via AP Images)

: The Scottish Late Late Show funnyman initially sought “honorary citizenships” to various U.S. states before achieving the real thing in 2008. After passing the citizenship exam, Ferguson told his studio audience, “All of you people born here, if you had to take that test — well, Canada would be building a fence right now.” (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)