  The giant dipole resonance (GDR) in deformed nuclei is analyzed using the
self-consistent separable random-phase-approximation (SRPA) with Skyrme forces
SkT6, SkM$^*$, SLy6 and SkI3. The deformed nuclei $^{150}$Nd and $^{238}$U are
used as representative rare-earth and actinide samples. Dependencies of the
dipole strength distributions on some basic characteristics of the Skyrme
functional and nuclear matter properties (isoscalar and isovector effective
masses, time-odd contributions) are discussed. Particular attention is paid to
the fragmentation structure of the GDR strength which are shown to depend
sensitively to spin-orbit intruder states with large angular momentum.
