Name - Rowan Sebastian Atkinson
 Birth  - 6. januar 1955




Birth name Rowan Sebastian Atkinson


Born 6 January 1955 (1955-01-06) (age 55)

Consett, County Durham, England, United Kingdom

Medium Stand-up, television, film

Years active 1979–present

Genres Physical comedy

Influences Peter Sellers, Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Tati[1]

Influenced Steve Pemberton, David Walliams

Spouse Sunetra Sastry

Notable works and roles Not the Nine O'Clock News

Blackadder

Mr. Bean

The Thin Blue Line

BAFTA Awards

Best Light Entertainment Performance

1981 Not the Nine O'Clock News

1990 Blackadder Goes Forth

Laurence Olivier Awards

Best Comedy Performance

1981 Rowan Atkinson in Revue




EARLY CHILDHOOD


Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English comedian, actor and writer. He is most famous for his work in the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Thin Blue Line. He has been listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy,[2] and amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians

It seems right to start a biography at the beginning of one’s life. Therefore, this biography will begin with Rowan’s early childhood and how those around him influenced what he would grow up to be.

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6 January 1955 to Eric and Ella May. They were considered middle working class. This lived in Stocksfield and would commute to a farm that the family owned. Rowan had two older brothers named Rodney and Rupert. These two brothers were going to go into careers in finance, therefore leaving the farm to be inherited by Rowan.

As was the tradition in those times, many families did not own their own TV which didn’t exclude Rowan’s family. However, Rowan’s Grandfather Edward owned a chain of cinemas and Rowan often would see the latest films here. His family didn’t get a television until he was 12 years of age. It was at this time when John Cleese was making his presence known to the viewers in comedies such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus which became one of Rowan’s favorite comedy acts. By the early 1970s he was able to recite by heart many skits from these shows. However, this did not make his unique as many other children his age were fond of Monty Python.

Early life


Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6th January 1955 in Consett, County Durham, England.[4] His parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and his wife Ella May (née Bainbridge), who married on 29 June 1945.[4] He has two elder brothers, Rodney Atkinson, a Eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election in 2000, and Rupert Atkinson.[5][6]

Atkinson was brought up Anglican.[7] He was educated at Durham Choristers School, followed by St. Bees School, and studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University.[8] He continued with an M.Sc. at The Queen's College, Oxford, first achieving notice at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976.[8] 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[8] and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.

 Radio

Atkinson starred in a series of comedy shows for BBC Radio 3 in 1978 called "Atkinson People". It consisted of a series of satirical interviews with fictional great men, who were played by Atkinson himself. The series was written by Atkinson and Richard Curtis, and produced by Griff Rhys Jones.[9]

 Television

After university, Atkinson toured with Angus Deayton as his funny 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. After a three-year gap, in part due to budgetary concerns, a second series was written, this time by Curtis and Ben Elton, and first screened in 1986. 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 the two sequels Blackadder the Third (1987) (set in the Regency era), and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) (set in World War I). The Blackadder series went on to become one of the most successful BBC situation comedies of all time, spawning 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 Buster Keaton.[10] 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, the last of the Mr. Bean films.



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.

 Film
Atkinson as Mr. Bean, in Brussels, next to the Manneken Pis.Atkinson's film career began in 1983 with a supporting part in the 'unofficial' 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 Anjelica 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 III, starring Charlie Sheen.

Atkinson gained further recognition with his turn as a verbally bumbling vicar in the 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral. That same year he featured in Walt Disney's The Lion King as Zazu the Red-billed 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.[11] He has also starred in the James Bond parody Johnny English in 2003. Its sequal, Johnny English 2 will be released in 2011. Keeping Mum (2005) was a departure for Atkinson, starring in a straight role.