Bio
Rowan Atkinson is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter best known for his work on 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 actors in British comedy and amongst the top 50 comedians ever in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians.
He has also had cinematic success with his performances in the Mr. Bean movie adaptations Bean and Mr. Bean's Holiday and in Johnny English and its sequel Johnny English Reborn.
He also starred in the film Never Say Never Again (a spy film based on the James Bond novel Thunderball) in 1983.
Atkinson was born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to Ella May and Eric Atkinson. His father owned a farm where he grew up with his two older brothers, Rupert and Rodney.
He attended Newcastle University and Oxford University where he earned degrees in electrical engineering. During that time, he met screenwriter Richard Curtis, with whom he wrote and performed comedy revues.
Later, he co-wrote and appeared in Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979), which was a huge success and spawned several best-selling books. It won an International Emmy Award and the British Academy Award for "Best Light Entertainment Programme of 1980."
He won the "British Academy Award" and was named "BBC Personality of the Year" for his performing on Not the Nine O'Clock News.
Atkinson also appeared in several movies, including Dead on Time (1983), Pleasure at Her Majesty's (1976 (aka Monty Python Meets Beyond the Fringe), Never Say Never Again (1983) and The Tall Guy (1989).
He played Mr. Bean in the TV series Mr. Bean but, apart from that and Not the Nine O'Clock News, he also appeared in several other series like The Black Adder and Funny Business.
Atkinson enjoys nothing better than fast cars. He has been married to Sunetra Sastry since 1990, and they have two children, named Benjamin and Lily.