19 FACTS ABOUT ROWAN ATKINSON, A.K.A. “MR. BEAN”, THAT REVEAL A DIFFERENT SIDE OF HIM

No matter what age you are or where you are from, the hilarious antics of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean must have tickled your funny bone at some time or another in your life. Though the Mr. Bean character is extremely comic and childlike, Atkinson himself is a very different person in real life. He was a shy child, yet he grew up to be one of the most beloved comedians in the world. His unique ability to show humor using extreme facial expressions and body language won over international audiences by breaking language barriers. But, there is more to him than meets the eye, and here are some interesting facts about Rowan Atkinson that will change your idea of him forever.

1Rowan Atkinson and Britain’s ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, were schoolmates at Durham Choristers School.

Rowan Atkinson and Tony Blair

Image Source: biography, thefamouspeople

When he joined the school, Atkinson was eleven years old and Tony Blair was two years his senior. According to the school’s former headmaster, Canon John Grove, the two boys were quite opposite in their behavior. While Atkinson was shy and kept to himself, Blair was very outgoing and a model pupil who volunteered for everything. (source)

2 Rowan Atkinson has a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s College, Oxford.

Rowan Atkinson at The Queen's College, Oxford

Image Source: Stewart Tabori & Chang, wikipedia

After he received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, Atkinson continued studying for a master’s of science in the same field at Queen’s College, Oxford in 1975. His course of study was the same as his father who graduated from there in 1935. He was also made an Honorary Fellow in 2006. (source)

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3Atkinson suffers from a stammer, so he uses over-articulation, a technique to overcome problematic consonants, for the “B” sounds.

Rowan Atkinson's Stutter

Image Source: gamekyo

Atkinson turns his stutter problem into a comic device because he over-articulates the sound of “B” as he did when pronouncing the name “Bob” in the episode of Bells in Blackadder II. He had reportedly experienced trouble because of this problem while at school having conversations with his friends. This fatigued and stressed him out. He overcame his stutter as he started acting and stated that, “It comes and goes. I find when I play a character other than myself, the stammering disappears. That may have been some of the inspiration for pursuing the career I did.”(1, 2)

4 Rowan Atkinson co-created and co-wrote Mr. Bean, the British sitcom for which he is so famous, while studying for his masters.

Howard Goodall, Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis in 1980

Image Source: howardgoodall

While in Oxford, Atkinson was asked during his first term to do a sketch that someone might show at the Oxford Playhouse. However, he did not consider himself a writer having never written anything before. He had only forty-eight hours to create something, and inspiration struck him in the form of a “strange, surreal and non-speaking character” as he stood in front of his mirror pulling faces. While at Oxford, he also met his co-writer, Richard Curtis, and composer, Howard Goodall, with whom he would collaborate many times throughout his career. He also received national attention in 1976 for his sketches in the Oxford Revue, a comedy group featuring Oxford students, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe now considered the world’s largest arts festival. (1, 2)

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5Though in the beginning of his career Atkinson appeared in several films and shows, he first rose to fame in the BBC comedy show Not the Nine O’Clock News.

Not the Nine O'Clock News

Image Source: tellyspotting

Not the Nine O’Clock News was a satirical sketch and show about current news stories, pop culture, comedy sketches, and also contained parody songs, re-edited videos, and spoof television formats. It made use a lot of use of library clips, usually of politicians, royalty, and celebrities. It was aired on BBC2 as a comic alternative to BBC’s Nine O’Clock News. The show also featured and helped launch the careers of three other comedians apart from Atkinson: Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, and Griff Rhys Jones.(1, 2)

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6 Atkinson met his ex-wife, Sunetra Sastry, on the sets of Blackadder where she worked as a makeup artist and has two children with her, Ben and Lily.

Rowan Atkinson's daughter Lily and wife

Rowan Atkinson’s daughter Lily and wife Sunetra. Featureflash Photo Agency/shutterstock.com

Sunetra Sastry was Stephen Fry’s makeup artist on the set of Blackadder in 1986. According to Fry, Atkinson one day asked him to swap makeup artists. When Fry asked if he didn’t like his own makeup artist, Atkinson replied, “N-no, it’s not that, she’s splendid.” In February 1990, Atkinson and Sastry married with Stephen Fry as the best man. Together they had two children, Ben and Lily, and were divorced in 2015 after twenty-five years of marriage. (1, 2)

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7The original name for Mr. Bean was “Mr. White”. It was then changed to “Mr. Cauliflower” before settling on “Mr. Bean”.

Mr. Bean and Mr. Cauliflower

Image Source: wikia, pngimg

Mr. Bean’s name was not decided upon until after the production of the first program. Before adopting the name “Mr. Bean”, several other vegetable-based names were considered, but in the end, “Mr. Bean” was chosen. According to Atkinson, his character was inspired by a character named “Monsieur Hulot” who was created by a french comedian and director, Jacques Tati. Just like in the old silent films, the series completely depends on physical comedy making it easier to understand for people who don’t speak English. (1, 2)

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8Despite being such a popular and much-loved comedy show, the Mr. Bean series has only fourteen episodes each being only twenty-five minutes long.

Mr. Bean

Image Source: giphy

All the episodes of Mr. Bean were aired over a span of six years, between January 1, 1990, to November 15, 1995. Apart from the fourteen episodes, the series also had a bonus episode aired on December 15, 1995, called The Best Bits of Mr. Bean. It was a compilation episode in which Mr. Bean goes to his loft on a rainy day and reminisces his old adventures from previous episodes. (source)

9Atkinson holds a category “C+E”, formerly “Class 1”, lorry driving license which he obtained in 1981 because of his fascination with lorries.

Apart from getting his license to drive a lorry, Atkinson also used his love for trucks in a very humorous song called “I Like Trucking” in his show Not the Nine O’Clock News. The song depicts him and his friends enthusiastically singing the song while keeping score of the number of hedgehogs he crushed under the tires while driving, and a car driver who gets tricked by their antics. (source)

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10A

tkinson also played a supporting character in Sean Connery’s James Bond movie Never Say Never Again (1983).

Atkinson in Never Say Never Again

Image Source: Warner Bros.

Atkinson played a character called “Nigel Small-Fawcett”, a Foreign Office representative in the Bahamas. When James Bond reaches the Bahamas looking for the villain, Maximillian Largo, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, Small-Fawcett informs him that Largo was heading for Nice, France.(source)

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