Contents
Rowan Atkinson
Playing Mr. Bean, Blackadder and Johnny English.
Blackadder · Mr. Bean
- Born
- 6 January 1955
- Birthplace
- North-east England, UK
More people
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson is a British actor and comedian known for both tightly written verbal comedy and almost wordless physical performance. Mr. Bean grew out of the stage sketches he developed before television fame.
Early life
Science student
Studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University.
Oxford sketches
Continued engineering studies at Oxford while writing and performing comedy.
Career
- 1970s
Stage comedy
Developed sketches and appeared at the Edinburgh Festival.
- 1979–1982
Television breakthrough
Joined the BBC sketch programme Not the Nine O’Clock News.
- 1980s–1990s
Sitcom leads
Established contrasting comic personas in Blackadder and Mr. Bean.
- 2000s
Film comedy
Built a recurring cinema role as the hapless spy Johnny English.
Selected work
Blackadder
A succession of scheming characters in different periods of British history.
Mr. Bean
Everyday tasks become elaborate physical disasters.
Johnny English
An incompetent intelligence agent takes centre stage.
Beyond work
Cars
A long-standing motoring enthusiast who has written about cars and competed in racing.
Stage work
Returned to theatre, including playing Fagin in the musical Oliver! in 2009.
Sources & photo credit
Life and career ↗Institutional or specialist reference ↗Photo: Eva Rinaldi. CC BY-SA 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
