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Rowan Atkinson
source: http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/r/ro/rowan_atkinson.html
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born January 6, 1955 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England) is a British comedian and actor.
He toured with a one-man show, with Angus Deayton as the straight man. The one-man show was filmed for television, and is still popular on video. It characterises Atkinson's comedy style, which is tightly planned and scripted, often physically-based comedy - comedy as performance, rather than comedy as observation or discussion, observant of life as many of the routines were. Atkinson's talent for physical comedy has seen him described as "the man with the rubber face".
Atkinson studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University then at Oxford (Queen's College), starting his comedy career at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He is married with two children. His major hobby is apparently fast cars, having written for the British magazine Car and owning and racing Aston Martin vehicles. He holds a UK HGV licence.
He has starred in several TV comedy series, among them:
Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979-1982) Blackadder (1983, 1986-89) Mr. Bean (1989-1995, 2002) Funny Business (1992), a documentary about the craft of comedy The Thin Blue Line (1995-96) the Comic Relief Red Nose Day telecasts (notably starring in the Doctor Who skit in the 1999 telecast)
He also played in several movies:
Never Say Never Again (1983) The Appointments of Dennis Jennings (1989) The Tall Guy (1989) The Witches (1990) Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) The Lion King (1994, voice of Zazu) Bean (1997) Rat Race (2001) Scooby-Doo (2002) Johnny English (2003) Love Actually (2003)
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Rowan Atkinson's Biography
source: http://www.freeweb.hu/grunwald/mrbean/english.htm
Rowan Atkinson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1955. 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 performed comedy reviews at the Oxford Playhouse and later at the Edinburgh Fringe.
After an acclaimed review at the Hampstead Theater in 1978, Atkinson was offered starring roles in two British television series, but chose instead to join the BBC's legendary "Not The Nine O'Clock News" team, where he first performed with Tall Guy director Mel Smith. The show recorded hugely successful albums, released several best-selling books, won an International Emmy Award, and the British Academy Award for "Best Light Entertainment Program of 1980."
For his performance in "Not the Nine O'Clock News," Atkinson personally won the "British Academy Award" and was named "BBC Personality of the Year." His show at London's Globe Theater was sold-out for its entire run, and he won the Society of West End Theaters award for "Comedy Performance of the Year."
In 1983, he began working with The Tall Guy screenwriter Richard Curtis on their "situation tragedy" -- "Black Adder" -- for BBC Television. After touring the world with his own show and appearing in "The Nerd" in London's West End, Atkinson co-wrote and starred in two new seasons of the innovative series "Black Adder."
While filming The Tall Guy during the day, Atkinson could be found in the theater in the evenings starring in "The Sneeze," a collection of Checkov adaptations. Atkinson played a British counsel opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond film "Never Say Never Again," and in 1989 co-starred with Steven Wright in the Academy Award-winning short film "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings." He was most recently seen in Nocholas Roeg's "The Witches" alongside Angelica Huston, in which he is once again cast as a villian.
Rowan Atkinson has also been in ITV's "Mr. Bean", has appeared in some big films (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Lion King), but as the typical "boring Englishman". He also has been BBC's "The Thin Blue Line", a comedy about policeman Raymond Fowler (Atkinson) who's crime-fighting methods lie 22 years, 8 months, and 6 days out of date.
He rides go-karts around his tennis courts according to Stephen Fry (his best man) "He hasn't got an ounce of show biz in him." He has an HGV license, owns various fast cars and writes for CAR, a British car magazine.
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