Rowan Atkinson

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' (qv), with whom he wrote and performed comedy revues.Later, he co-wrote and appeared in Not the Nine O'Clock 'News' (qv) (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' (qv) (1979).Atkinson also appeared in several movies, including _Dead on Time (1983)_ (qv), _Pleasure at Her Majesty's (1976)_ (qv) (aka "Monty Python Meets Beyond the Fringe"), _Never Say Never Again (1983)_ (qv), and _The Tall Guy (1989)_ (qv). He played "Mr. Bean" in the TV series, _Mr. Bean (1990)_ (qv) but, apart from that and Not the Nine O'Clock 'News' (qv) (1979), he also appeared in several other series like _Blackadder (1982)_ (qv) and _Funny Business (1992)_ (qv), etc.Atkinson enjoys nothing more than fast cars. He has two children, named Benjamin and Lily, with ex-wife 'Sunetra Sastry' (qv).::Van Whistler