Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson was born on January 6, the twelfth night of Christmas. In keeping with that theme his parents gave him the middle name of Sebastian, after the brother of Viola on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”.

He was born in Consent, Co Durham, England. His father owned a farm in the area, but he was brought up in a residential area. He had two older brothers Rupert and Rodney. He went to Public school in England. He attended Newcastle University before going to Oxford in 1975, and it was at Oxford that he met screenwriter Richard Curtis, with whom he wrote and preformed comedy revues at the Oxford Playhouse and later at the Edinburgh fringe.

“Rowan used to be shy with a rubbery face”-says his former headmaster.[1]

“The other boys made him pull funny faces. I’m sure they had been imitations of me and my colleagues “, adds headmaster Grove.

Rowan Atkinson was the youngest of three sons. By the time he was thirteen, he had won a scholarship to a private school. After he had been studying there for a while he got involved in acting. By the time he was seventeen, he had already acted in a play at the Edinburgh Festival.

His teachers predicted a future in acting, but despite this, Rowan still wasn’t planning a career in entertainment.

A happy accident finally unlocked Rowan’s talents while he was practising a script in 1976. He was playing around pulling faces for ten minutes in front of a mirror when he realised what he had done. “I discovered my face”, he said later.

John Lloyd, a BBC producer, says: “It was one of those things which happen very rarely in your life, when you realise you are in the presence of genius. I was convinced he would be more famous than Chaplin”.[2]

Events in Order

• Wrote and performed comedy revues with Richard Curtis at the Oxford Fringe Playhouse and the Edinburgh
• Feature acting and writing debut , “The secret Policeman ’ s Ball”
• Joined the English series “Not the Nine O’ Clock News” as a writer  (with Richard Curtis) and performer
• Named BBC Personality of the Year
• Co-wrote (with Richard Curtis) and started (in the title role) as the BBC-TV series, “The Black adder”
• First non- comic feature role , “Never Say Never Again”

1985 Starred   in the West End production of «The Nerd”

• Starred in “Black adder Goes Forth”
• Starred in the West End production of  “The Sneeze”
• Co-wrote (with Richard Curtis) and starred in the English series, “Mr. Bean”
• Reprised role of Mr. Bean for the big screen comedy “Bean”
• Appeared in “Maybe Baby”
• Offered a scene-stealing comic turn as an Italian tourist who is selected to participate in a “Rat Race”