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Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English comedian, actor and writer, famous for his title roles in the British television comedies Blackadder and Mr. Bean. He has been listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians. Sharp-tongued comic performer known for playing sardonic characters on English TV. Atkinson began his career writing with Richard Curtis (who went on to script much of Atkinson's subsequent work) and performing in comedy revues throughout England. This led to a stint on the celebrated comedy series, "Not the Nine O'Clock News", for which he wrote and acted. Atkinson became famous starring in "The Blackadder", a BBC "situation tragedy" co-written with Curtis. The show spawned three sequel series--"Blackadder II", "Blackadder the Third" and "Blackadder Goes Forth"--which chronicled the life of the initially aristocratic Edmond Blackadder and his gradual descent down the English social ladder. Miranda Richardson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry co-starred with Atkinson in the show's various incarnations. Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham in 1955. His parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and his wife Ella May (née Bambridge), who had married on 29 June 1945. His elder brother, Rodney Atkinson, is a eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election in 2000. Atkinson was raised Anglican. 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 The Queen's 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. Atkinson's film career has been less exalted, consisting of small comic supporting roles in the Curtis-scripted "The Tall Guy" (1989), Nicolas Roeg's "The Witches" (1990), "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993) and a scene-stealing turn as a cleric prone to malapropisms in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994). Back on English TV, he and Curtis wrote and Atkinson starred in "Mr. Bean" (1990-92), a near-silent comedy series that showcased the performer's considerable physical comic abilities. Atkinson took this accident-prone character to the big screen in the mildly enjoyable "Bean" (1997). Additionally, he returned to the series format as a by-the-book police commander in "The Thin Blue Line" (BBC, 1996-98). After university, Atkinson toured with Angus Deayton as his straight man in an act that was eventually filmed for a television show. After the success of the show, he did a one-off pilot for ITV in 1979 called Canned Laughter. Atkinson then went on to do Not the Nine O'Clock News, produced by his friend John Lloyd. He starred on the show along with Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, and was one of the main sketch writers. 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 all time, spawning longer television specials including Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) and Blackadder: The Cavalier Years (1988). Atkinson's other famous creation, the hapless Mr. Bean, first appeared on New Years Day in 1990 in a half-hour special for Thames Television. The character of Mr. Bean has been likened somewhat to a modern-day Charlie Chaplin. During this time, Atkinson appeared at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal in 1987 and 1989. Several sequels to Mr. Bean appeared on television in the 1990s, and it eventually made into a major motion picture in 1997. Entitled Bean, it was directed by Mel Smith, his former co-star from Not the Nine O'Clock News. A second movie was released in 2007 entitled Mr. Bean's Holiday. In 1999 Atkinson reprised the role of Edmond Blackadder for the first time in a decade for "Blackadder: Back and Forth," a three-minute short in which he co-starred with the entire original cast, and he assumed the role of the latest incarnation of the British sci-fi cult hero Dr. Who for the satirical "Comic Relief: Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death." He also hilariously cameoed in the uneven romance "Maybe Baby" (2000) alongside a host of famous name talents from the UK British for writer-director Ben Elton, a frequent Atkinson colleague. Joining another huge ensemble of comedic talents, Atkinson's next major American outing was director Jerry Zucker's manic but lackluster caper film "Rat Race" (2001), a nod to the big comedies with outsized casts of the 1960s. He vocally reprised Mr. Bean for an British animated series in 2002, and that same year also helped bring a classic animated series to life on the big screen as Spooky Island Owner Emile Mondavarious in "Scooby Doo." In 2003 Atkinson returned to the big screen again as accident-prone secret agent "Johnny English," a character he first created for a series of English credit card commericals from 1992 to 1998/ Reteaming with his frequent producing collaborator Tim Bevan of Working Title Films, Atkinson developed the movie's story and gags over several months with screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade--who previously penned the honest-to-goodness 007 films "The World Is Not Enough" and "Die Another Day"--and director Peter Howitt. The spy comedy proved to be an international sensation, grossing over $100 million in its first 39 days of release even before it was opened in the United States. He then made another scene-stealing cameo appearance as a jewelry salesman in Curtis' self-penned directorial debut "Love Actually" (2003). Atkinson has fronted campaigns for Hitachi electrical goods, Fujifilm, and Give Blood. Most famously, he appeared as a hapless and error-prone espionage agent in a long-running series for Barclaycard, on which character his title role in Johnny English was based. Atkinson's film career began in 1983 with a supporting part in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again and a leading role in Dead on Time with Nigel Hawthorne. He appeared in former Not the Nine O'Clock News co-star Mel Smith's directorial debut The Tall Guy in 1989. He also appeared alongside Angelica Huston and Mai Zetterling in Roald Dahl's The Witches in 1990. In 1993 he played the part of Dexter Hayman in Hot Shots! Part Deux, a parody of Rambo starring Charlie Sheen. Atkinson, with his turn as a verbally bumbling vicar, gained further recognition in the 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral. That same year he featured in Walt Disney's The Lion King as Zazu the Hornbill. Atkinson continued to appear in supporting roles in successful comedies, including Rat Race (2001), Scooby-Doo (2002), and Love Actually (2003). In addition to his supporting roles, Atkinson has also had success as a leading man. His television character Mr. Bean debuted on the big screen in 1997 with Bean to international success. A sequel, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was released in March 2007 and may be the last time he plays the character. He has also starred in the James Bond parody Johnny English in 2003. Keeping Mum (2005, released in the U.S. in 2006) was a departure for Atkinson, starring in a straight role. One of his better-known trademark comic devices is over-articulation of the "B" sound, such as his pronunciation of "Bob" in a Blackadder episode. Atkinson's style is often visually-based. This visual style, which has been compared to Charlie Chaplin, sets Atkinson apart as most modern television and film comedies rely heavily on dialogue, and stand-up comedy is mostly based on monologues. This talent for visual comedy has led to Atkinson being called "the man with the rubber face". In early 2008 it was confirmed that Atkinson would fulfil a life long ambition and take on the role of Fagin in Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! which will be produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh. He was quoted as saying, "In the 1980s I enjoyed doing a lot of West End theatre and since then have been distracted very much by Mr Bean and film-making. I had been thinking for some time about returning to the stage, and the idea of the role of Fagin has long intrigued me. I even had the part in a school production." The production will open in early December 2008. The roles of Nancy and Oliver will be selected by the British public in a TV reality competition on the show I'd Do Anything. Atkinson married Sunetra Sastry in 1990, having met her professionally on the set of Blackadder. They married quietly at the Russian Tea Room in New York City, U.S., with Stephen Fry acting as the best man. The couple have two children, Lily and Benjamin, and live in the Northamptonshire village of Apethorpe in England. 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. With an estimated wealth of £100 million, Atkinson is able to indulge his passion for cars that began with driving his mother's Morris Minor around the family farm. He has written for the British magazines Car and Evo. Atkinson also holds a UK HGV licence, gained because lorries held a fascination for him, and to ensure employment as a young actor. A lover of and participant in car racing, he appeared as racing driver Henry Birkin in the television play Full Throttle in 1995. In 1991, he starred in the self-penned Driven Man, a series of sketches featuring Atkinson driving around London trying to solve his car-fetish, and discussing it with taxi drivers, policemen, used-car salesmen and psychotherapists. Atkinson's car collection is dominated by Aston Martins, including the DB7 Vantage used in Johnny English. His Aston Martin V8 Zagato, featuring a novelty registration plate, was driven by his character Dexter in the film The Tall Guy. Atkinson was cited for speeding in the car, just as his character was in the movie. He also received a driving ban as a result of the incident. He also races in his V8 Zagato, from which he escaped unhurt after crashing it into a barrier at an Aston Martin Owners Club event in Croft Circuit in 2001. He is reported to have placed an advanced order for a Morgan Aero Max, which costs £110,000. Atkinson has raced in other cars, including a Renault 5 GT Turbo for two seasons for its one make series. He owns one McLaren F1,which was involved in an accident with an Austin Metro. Other cars he owns include an Audi A8, a Honda Civic Hybrid, and a Bugatti Veyron, which crashed recently. One car he will not own is a Porsche: "I have a problem with Porsches. They're wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people — and I wish them no ill — are not, I feel, my kind of people. I don't go around saying that Porsches are a pile of dung, but I do know that psychologically I couldn't handle owning one." He appeared to relent from this position when reviewing a Porsche 965 for Car magazine in the early 1990s. |
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