Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6 January, 1955, in Consett, Co.
Durham, UK, to Ella May (Bainbridge) and Eric Atkinson. His father
owned a farm, where Rowan 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 performance
in Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979).
Atkinson also appeared in several movies, including
Dead on Time (1983),
Pleasure at Her Majesty's (1976)
(aka "Monty Python Meets Beyond the Fringe"),
Sag Niemals Nie (1983),
and Das lange Elend (1989). He played
"Mr. Bean" in the TV series,
Mr. Bean (1990) but, apart from that
and
Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979),
he also appeared in several other series like
Blackadder (1982) and
Funny Business (1992), etc.
Atkinson enjoys nothing more than fast cars. He has two children, named Benjamin and Lily, with ex-wife Sunetra Sastry.
