Profile of Rowan Atkinson on Famous Like Me

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born January 6, 1955 in Consett, County Durham, England) is a British comedian and actor. Two of his most well-known characters are Edmund Blackadder and Mr. Bean.

Atkinson was born to Eric Atkinson and Ella May, Anglican farmers. He was educated at Durham Choristers School followed by St Bees School and studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University then at Oxford (Queen's College), starting his comedy career at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Atkinson toured with a one-man show, with Angus Deayton as the straight man. The one-man show was filmed for television, and is still popular on video. It characterises Atkinson's comedy style, which is tightly planned and scripted, often physically-based comedy – comedy as performance, rather than comedy as observation or discussion, observant of life as many of the routines were. Atkinson's talent for physical comedy has seen him described as "the man with the rubber face". In 1978 he was offered his own television series by ITV but turned it down in favour of Not the Nine O'Clock News.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

He suffered from a stutter as a child and it sometimes returns when he is in stressful situations. In particular, the letter "B" poses a problem for him. He managed to overcome the problem through over articulation; however, this over articulation, somewhat ironically, evolved into one of his trademark comic devices in itself. His pronunciation of "Bob" in Blackadder being a famous example.

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.

He has also appeared in television advertising campaigns for Hitachi electrical goods, Fujifilm, the Give Blood campaign and, most famously, as an espionage agent for Barclaycard from which his title role was based for the film Johnny English.

He also made appearances at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, which also airs on television. He was present at the fifth festival in 1987 and the seventh in 1989.

Atkinson is married to Sunetra Sastry in 1990 and has two children, Lily and Benjamin. His major hobby is fast cars, having written for the British magazine Car and owning and racing Aston Martin vehicles. He holds a UK HGV licence, and currently writes for the British magazine Evo on running an MG XPower SV.

He has starred in several TV comedy series, among them:

• The Secret Policeman's Ball (1979), a charity special for Amnesty International.
• Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979-1982)
• Blackadder (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989)
• Mr. Bean (1989-1995, 2002)
• Funny Business (1992), a documentary about the craft of comedy
• The Thin Blue Line (1995-96)
• the Comic Relief Red Nose Day telecasts (notably starring in the "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death" skit in the 1999 telecast)

Filmography

• Never Say Never Again (1983)
• The Appointments of Dennis Jennings (1989)
• The Tall Guy (1989)
• The Witches (1990)
• Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
• The Lion King (1994, voice of Zazu)
• Bean (1997)
• Rat Race (2001)
• Scooby-Doo (2002)
• Johnny English (2003)
• Love Actually (2003)
• Keeping Mum (2005) In Production
• Bean 2 (2006) Announced

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