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Rowan Sebastian Atkinson
(born January 6, 1955 in
Consett, County Durham, England) is an English comedian,
actor and writer best known for playing the title roles
in the UK television series Blackadder and Mr. Bean.
Early life
 Atkinson was born to Eric Atkinson and Ella May,
Anglican farmers in the town of Consett, near Newcastle
Upon Tyne. 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 Oxford (Queen's College), starting his comedy
career at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1977. At
Oxford, he also acted and performed early sketches for
the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) and the
Experimental Theatre Club (ETC), meeting writer Richard
Curtis and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would
continue to collaborate during his career.
Atkinson toured with Angus Deayton, who accompanied him
as straight man. The show was filmed for television, and
is still popular on video. It characterises Atkinson's
comedy style, which is rigorously planned and scripted,
often visual-based -
comedy as performance, rather than
as observation or discussion, observant of life as many
of the routines were. Atkinson's talent for visual
comedy has seen him described as "the man with the
rubber face". In 1978 he was offered his own television
series by ITV but turned it down in favour of Not the
Nine O'Clock News, which also starred Pamela Stephenson,
Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith.
Career
The success of Not the Nine O'Clock News led to his
starring in the medieval sitcom The Black Adder, which
he also co-wrote with Richard Curtis, in 1983. Despite a
mixed reception, a second series was written, this time
by Curtis and Ben Elton, and first screened in 1985.
Blackadder II followed the fortunes of one of the
descendants of Atkinson's original character, this time
in the Elizabethan era. The same pattern was repeated in
two sequels Blackadder the Third (1987) (set in the
Regency era), and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), set in
the First World War. The Blackadder series went on to
become one of the most successful BBC situation comedies
of the 1980s.
Atkinson's other famous creation, the hapless Mr. Bean,
first appeared the following year in a half-hour special
for Thames Television. Several sequels followed at
irregular intervals before the character transferred to
film in 1997. Entitled Bean, it was directed by his
former co-star from Not the Nine O'Clock News, Mel
Smith. As of 2006, a second film is being planned, which
Atkinson says will be the last time he plays the
character.
In 2003, Atkinson was listed in The Observer as one of
the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in a 2005
poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted
amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians
and comedy insiders.
Private life
He suffered from a stutter as a child and it sometimes
returns when he is in stressful situations. In
particular, the letter "B" poses a problem for him. He
managed to overcome the problem through over
articulation. However, this over articulation - somewhat
ironically - evolved into one of his trademark comic
devices (his pronunciation of "Bob" in Blackadder being
a famous example).
In June 2005, Atkinson led a coalition of the UK's most
prominent actors and writers, including Nicholas Hytner
and Ian McEwan, to the British Parliament in an attempt
to force a review of the controversial Racial and
Religious Hatred Bill - on the grounds that the Bill
would give religious groups a "weapon of
disproportionate power" whose threat would engender a
culture of self-censorship among artists.
He has also appeared in television advertising campaigns
for Hitachi electrical goods, Fujifilm, the Give Blood
campaign and, most famously, as an espionage agent for
Barclaycard on which his title role was based for the
film Johnny English.
He also made appearances at the Just for Laughs comedy
festival in Montreal, which also airs on television. He
was present at the fifth festival in 1987 and the
seventh in 1989.
Atkinson married Sunetra Sastry in 1990; they have two
children, Lily and Benjamin. A millionaire with an
estimated wealth of £60 million, his major hobby is fast
cars, of which he has a large collection, consisting of
Aston Martins, various other models, and a purple
McLaren F1 (his second, he crashed the first in the
Oxfordshire countryside). He has written for the British
magazine Car. He holds a UK HGV licence, and currently
writes for the British magazine Evo on running an MG
XPower SV. In 1995 he appeared in the straight role of
racing driver Henry Birkin in the television play Full
Throttle.
Selected television appearances
* The Secret Policeman's Ball (1979), a charity special
for Amnesty International.
* Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979-1982)
* Blackadder (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989)
* Mr. Bean (1989-1995, 2002)
* Bernard and the Genie, (1991)
* Funny Business (1992), a documentary about the craft
of comedy
* The Thin Blue Line (1995-96)
* The Comic Relief Red Nose Day telecasts, including
appearing in "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death"
skit in the 1999 telecast, and as Spider-Plant Man as
Peter Piper & Spider-Plant Man in 2005.
Filmography
* Never Say Never Again (1983)
* The Appointments of Dennis Jennings (1989)
* The Tall Guy (1989)
* The Witches (1990)
* Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
* Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
* The Lion King (1994, voice of Zazu)
* Bean (1997)
* Rat Race (2001)
* Scooby-Doo (2002)
* Johnny English (2003)
* Love Actually (2003)
* Keeping Mum (2005)
* Bean 2 (2007) Announced
Source
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