Rowan Atkinson
From Philosopedia
Rowan Atkinson (6 January 1955 - )
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, to farmers Ella May and Eric Atkinson. He attended Cathedral Chorister School in Durham and [http://www.st-bees-school.org/ St. Bee's School, after which he studied at Newcastle University and Oxford University.
Starting in the late 1970s, many knew him as Mr. Bean, and The Observer named him as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
In 1982 he received the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for comedy.
In 1990 he married Sunetra Sastry, and they have two children, Benjamin and Lily. (m. 1990, one son, one daughter)
Dick Fiddy, in a BFI Screen Online biography, describes Atkinson's career:
- Impressive in the Oxford Revue's show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1977, Atkinson honed his comedic talents on stage before appearing on TV in 1979's Rowan Atkinson Presents... Canned Laughter' (ITV). Six months later he achieved major fame as one of the talented team of comedy performers in the BBC's satirical sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979-82).
- In the 1980s, he found a winning formula in the sitcom Blackadder (BBC, 1983-89), in which successive series followed different generations of the Blackadder family from the 15th century to the trenches in WWI. In the 1990s, he earned more success as the gormless, face-pulling Mr Bean (ITV, 1993), which became an international hit and led to the feature Bean (1997), directed by Atkinson's old colleague from Not the Nine O'Clock News, Mel Smith.
- The visual comedy of Mr. Bean contrasted sharply with the verbal gymnastics of Blackadder and demonstrated Atkinson's mastery of both disciplines. He had less success with police sitcom The Thin Blue Line (BBC, 1995-96) but, in response to the huge popularity of the Bean movie, he appeared in another big-budget US movie, Johnny English (US/France/UK, d. Peter Howitt, 2003), playing a bumbling British spy, a character he had created some years earlier for a series of Barclaycard commercials.
Selected Works
TELEVISION
- Not the Nine O'Clock News 1979-82
- The Black Adder Blackadder (1983)
- Blackadder II Blackadder (1986)
- Blackadder the Third Blackadder (1987)
- Blackadder Goes Forth Blackadder (1989)
- Mr. Bean Mr. Bean (1990-95)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
- Mr. Bean's Holiday (22-Mar-2007)
- Keeping Mum (2-Dec-2005)
- Love Actually (7-Sep-2003)
- Johnny English (6-Apr-2003)
- Scooby Doo (8-Jun-2002)
- Rat Race (30-Jul-2001)
- Maybe Baby (2-Jun-2000)
- Bean (3-Jul-1997)
- The Lion King (15-Jun-1994) [VOICE]
- Four Weddings and a Funeral (9-Mar-1994)
- Hot Shots! Part Deux (21-May-1993)
- Rowan Atkinson Live (11-Apr-1992)
- Bernard and the Genie (1991)
- The Witches (16-Feb-1990)
- The Tall Guy (11-Sep-1989)
- Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)
- Never Say Never Again (7-Oct-1983)
- The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (21-May-1982) Himself
- The Secret Policeman's Ball (22-Dec-1979)
A humanities humanist, Atkinson is humanities-centered in his philosophic outlook, and he is known for satirizing religion:
