57 Facts About Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6 January 1955 and is an English actor, comedian and writer.

Rowan Atkinson played the title roles in the sitcoms Blackadder and Mr Bean, and in the film series Johnny English.

Rowan Atkinson portrayed Mr Bean in the film adaptations Bean and Mr Bean's Holiday.

Rowan Atkinson featured in the BBC sitcom The Thin Blue Line, and he played the titular character in ITV's Maigret.

Rowan Atkinson was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest actors in British comedy in 2003, and among the top 50 comedians ever, in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians.

Rowan Atkinson was appointed a CBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.

Rowan Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham, England, on 6 January 1955.

Rowan Atkinson was brought up Anglican, and was educated at the Durham Chorister School, a preparatory school, and then at St Bees School.

Rowan Atkinson briefly embarked in doctoral work before devoting his full attention to acting.

Rowan Atkinson starred in a series of comedy shows for BBC Radio 3 in 1979 called The Rowan Atkinson People.

In October 1979, Rowan Atkinson first appeared on Not the Nine O'Clock News for the BBC, produced by his friend John Lloyd.

Rowan Atkinson featured in the show 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 Rowan Atkinson taking the lead role of Edmund Blackadder in the BBC mock-historical comedy Blackadder.

Rowan Atkinson's co-stars included Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

The character of Mr Bean has been likened to a modern-day Buster Keaton, but Rowan Atkinson himself has stated that Jacques Tati's character Monsieur Hulot was the main inspiration.

Rowan Atkinson portrayed Inspector Raymond Fowler in The Thin Blue Line, a television sitcom written by Ben Elton, which takes place in a police station located in fictitious Gasforth.

Rowan Atkinson has fronted campaigns for Kronenbourg, Fujifilm, and Give Blood.

Rowan Atkinson appeared as a hapless and error-prone espionage agent named Richard Lathum in a long-running series of adverts for Barclaycard, on which character his title role in Johnny English, Johnny English Reborn and Johnny English Strikes Again was based.

Rowan Atkinson appeared as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on the BBC's Top Gear in July 2011, driving the Kia Cee'd around the track in 1:42.2.

Rowan Atkinson appeared at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London as Mr Bean in a comedy sketch during a performance of "Chariots of Fire", playing a repeated single note on synthesiser.

Rowan Atkinson then lapsed into a dream sequence in which he joined the runners from the film of the same name, beating them in their iconic run along West Sands at St Andrews, by riding in a minicab and tripping the front runner.

Rowan Atkinson starred as Jules Maigret in Maigret, a series of television films from ITV.

In November 2012, it emerged that Rowan Atkinson intended to retire Mr Bean.

In October 2014, Rowan Atkinson appeared as Mr Bean in a TV advert for Snickers.

In 2017, Rowan Atkinson appeared as Mr Bean in the Chinese film Huan Le Xi Ju Ren.

In February 2019, Rowan Atkinson appeared as Mr Bean in a commercial for Emirati-based telecommunications company Etisalat.

Rowan Atkinson, who narrated the commercial, takes on multiple characters: a Scottish warrior, a gentleman and a lady from the Victorian era, a football player, a jungle man, a man revving up a chainsaw, a racing car driver, and a masked sword-wielding Spanish vigilante.

In October 2018, Rowan Atkinson received YouTube's Diamond Play Button for his channel surpassing 10 million subscribers on the video platform.

In January 2014, ITV announced a new animated series featuring Mr Bean with Rowan Atkinson returning to the role.

Rowan Atkinson was in the 1988 Oscar-winning short film The Appointments of Dennis Jennings.

Rowan Atkinson appeared in Mel Smith's directorial debut The Tall Guy and appeared alongside Anjelica Huston and Mai Zetterling in The Witches, a film adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's novel.

Rowan Atkinson gained further recognition as a verbally bumbling vicar in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and featured in Disney's The Lion King as the voice of Zazu the red-billed hornbill.

Rowan Atkinson sang the song "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" in The Lion King.

Rowan Atkinson has appeared in supporting roles in comedies, including Rat Race, Scooby-Doo, jewellery salesman Rufus in another Richard Curtis British-set romantic comedy, Love Actually, and the crime comedy Keeping Mum, which starred Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, and Patrick Swayze.

Rowan Atkinson has starred in the James Bond parody Johnny English film series.

In 2023, Rowan Atkinson is to star in Wonka, a film which serves as a prequel to the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, exploring Willy Wonka's origins.

Rowan Atkinson undertook a four-month tour of the UK in 1980.

In 1984, Rowan Atkinson appeared in a West End version of the comedy play The Nerd alongside a 10-year-old Christian Bale.

On 28 November 2012, Rowan Atkinson reprised the role of Blackadder at the "We are Most Amused" comedy gala for The Prince's Trust at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

In February 2013, Rowan Atkinson took on the titular role in a 12-week production of the Simon Gray play Quartermaine's Terms at Wyndham's Theatre in London with costars Conleth Hill and Felicity Montagu.

Rowan Atkinson often plays authority figures speaking absurd lines with a completely deadpan delivery.

Rowan Atkinson has a stammer, and the over-articulation is a technique to overcome problematic consonants.

Rowan Atkinson opened a window to a world that I'd never looked out on before, and I thought, "God, that's interesting," how a comic situation can be developed as purely visual and yet it's not under-cranked, it's not speeded-up, it's more deliberate; it takes its time.

Rowan Atkinson met makeup artist Sunetra Sastry in the late 1980s when she was working for the BBC, and they married in February 1990.

In 2013, at the age of 58, Rowan Atkinson began an affair with 32-year-old comedian Louise Ford after they met while performing in a play together.

In June 2005, Rowan Atkinson led a coalition of the United Kingdom's most prominent actors and writers, including Nicholas Hytner, Stephen Fry, and Ian McEwan, to the British Parliament in an attempt to force a review of the controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, which they felt would give overwhelming power to religious groups to impose censorship on the arts.

In 2018, Rowan Atkinson defended comments made by Boris Johnson over wearing the burqa.

In January 2021, Rowan Atkinson criticised the rise of cancel culture.

Rowan Atkinson holds a category C+E lorry driving licence, gained in 1981, because lorries held a fascination for him, and to ensure employment as a young actor.

Rowan Atkinson has used this skill when filming comedy material.

In 1991, he starred in the self-penned The Driven Man, a series of sketches featuring Rowan Atkinson driving around London trying to solve his obsession with cars, and discussing it with taxi drivers, policemen, used-car salesmen and psychotherapists.

Rowan Atkinson has raced in other cars, including a Renault 5 GT Turbo for two seasons for its one make series.

Rowan Atkinson has previously owned a Honda NSX, an Audi A8, a Skoda Superb, and a Honda Civic Hybrid.

In July 2001, Rowan Atkinson crashed an Aston Martin V8 Zagato at an enthusiasts' meeting, but walked away unhurt.

In July 2011, Rowan Atkinson appeared as the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on Top Gear, driving the Kia Cee'd around the track in 1:42.2, which at the time granted him first place on the leaderboard; subsequently, only Matt LeBlanc set a faster time.

Rowan Atkinson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.

In March 2001, while Rowan Atkinson was on holiday in Kenya, the pilot of his private plane fainted; Rowan Atkinson managed to maintain the plane in the air until the pilot recovered and was able to land the plane at Wilson Airport in Nairobi.