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Rowan Atkinson(Mr Bean)
By peace | March 28, 2007
Profile of Rowan Atkinson
Real Name: Rowan Sebastian Atkinson
Best Known As: Comic character Mr. Bean
Birthday: 6 January 1955
Birthplace: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, UK
Occupation: Actor
Sign: Capricorn
Biography
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Rowan Atkinson has become one of the best-known British comic talents of his generation. Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is an English comedian, actor and writer best known for playing Edmund Blackadder in Blackadder and for playing the title role in the British television comedy Mr. Bean.
Atkinson was born to Ella May and Eric Atkinson, Anglican farmers in the town of Consett, north-west of the city of Durham. His oldest brother is Rodney Atkinson, the outspoken eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election to Jeffrey Titford in 2000. With wife Sunetra Sastry, Atkinson has fathered two 
children, Lily and Benejamin.
He was educated at Durham Choristers School, followed by St Bees School, and studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University. He continued with an MSc at Queens College, Oxford, first achieving notice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1976. At Oxford, he also acted and performed early sketches for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), the Oxford Revue and the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC), meeting writer Richard Curtis and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.
Although he’d first appeared at Edinburgh when he was 17, Atkinson was spotted at the 1976 Festival by television producer John Lloyd, who went on to produce him in his first starring role - as one of the four members of the Not The Nine O’Clock News sketch team. This was followed by the huge success of Blackadder and its sequels which propelled Atkinson to star status.
He then went on to create Mr Bean. A walking disaster, Bean was purely physical comedy, the opposite of Edmund Blackadder’s polished dialogue. This clumsy character was a huge success and became another national treasure.
Atkinson made his big-screen debut in 1983’s unofficial James Bond picture Never Say Never Again. Despite this film receiving mixed reports, he has continued to juggle TV and film roles. In 1997 Bean came to the big screen, and Scooby Doo topped the US box office in 2002. This was followed by spoof Bond feature Johnny English in 2003.
As a long-time collaborator with writer Richard Curtis, he has regularly contributed to Comic Relief. He even played the 9th Doctor, in the 1999 Doctor Who spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death.
Filmography
Atkinson made his major feature film bow with a small, yet comical role in the James Bond thriller, Never Say Never Again. In the late ’80s he starred in a few films penned by Curtis. It was while they were filming The Tall Guy that Atkinson and Curtis created Mr. Bean, an average British Joe with a clumsy nature and a nasty streak and launched a series. With virtually no dialogue, the comedy and its star became famous worldwide. Running for six years, Mr. Bean developed a cult following and by the late ’90s had spawned a feature film.
Although he made strong showings in films like The Witches and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and lent his voice to the popular animated feature, The Lion King, Atkinson went back to television, with a new series, The Thin Blue Line. Based on the comical adventures of a police station, the show didn’t fare well with audiences and only lasted two seasons.
During the late ’90s he started having some commercial exposure for products like Barclaycard and M&M chocolate candy. Back into films by the start of the new millennium, Atkinson has landed roles in Maybe Baby (2000), Rat Race (2001) and Scooby-Doo (2002).
Mr. Bean’s Holiday: 2007
Rat Race: 2001
Scooby-Doo: 2002
The Lion King IMAX: 1999
The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball: 1981
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