Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (4)

Wide range of humorous expressions



His characters: Mr. Bean and Blackadder



Deep calm voice





Lifelong professional collaborations with writer-director Richard Curtis

Trivia (28)



He is the father of a son, Benjamin Alexander Sebastian Atkinson (born 1993) and a daughter, Lily Grace Atkinson (aka Lily Atkinson ) (born 1995), with his ex-wife Sunetra Sastry



He rides go-karts round his tennis courts and, according to Stephen Fry (his best man), "hasn't got an ounce of showbiz in him".

He has an HGV license (Heavy Goods Vehicle - the old legal term in the United Kingdom for goods vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight).



He owns various fast cars (Aston Martin Vantages, etc.).



He writes articles for CAR (a British car magazine).



His education: Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK (electrical engineering); Oxford University, Oxford, UK (electrical engineering).



He races (and also crashes) his Aston Martins in the Aston Martins Owners club series.





He attended Cathedral Chorister School, Durham. So did British Prime Minister Tony Blair , who was two years above him.



He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Comedy Performance in 1982 for the 1981 season.

He once crashed his McLaren F1, a supercar valued at more than $1,000,000, into the back of a stationary Mini Metro, valued at around $600. The damage was not severe.



He publicly opposed the British Labour government's plans in 2004 to introduce new legislation on incitement to religious hatred, arguing that it would undermine free speech and thought (even citing the possible development of mind-reading technology), and that such measures would make political satire - which he considers seminal in a democracy - unworkable.



He had to pull out of his role in a West End production of Oliver in April 2009 due to hernia surgery.





He owns a Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, which he used in the film Johnny English (2003).



He is the only actor to appear in every episode of Blackadder, Tony Robinson did not appear in the pilot.

On August 4, 2011 he was admitted to Peterborough City Hospital after crashing his McLaren Formula1 sports car. He suffered a light injury on his shoulder.



He has suffered with a stammer for many years, hence does not like giving interviews.



He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Drama and to charity.



Three of his grandparents were all born in Durham. His paternal grandparents were Edward Atkinson, of Spennymoor, and Edith Gertrude Browell, of Crookhall. His maternal grandfather was Frank Bainbridge, of Hartlepool, while his maternal grandmother Ella Schofield, came from Grosmont in North Yorkshire.



He has trouble pronouncing words that begin with the letter B and followed by a vowel. He has to pause slightly to say them.





He disliked The Black Adder (1982). So did Michael Grade , who became Controller of BBC One in 1984 and nearly cancelled further series.

He is a big car fan, some of the cars he has owned include: McLaren F1 GTR, Audi A8, Mercedes-Benz 500E, Bentley mulsanne, Honda civic hybrid, Lancia delta intergrale, Aston Martin V8 zagato, Aston Martin DB2, Honda Acura NSX, BMW 328, Ford falcon.



His cousin's son is Swedish actor Nick Atkinson.



He's a partner in the production company Tiger Aspect.



In 2002 he was involved in the creation and production of the Mr Bean animated series.



On stage he took the lead in 'The Nerd' at London's Aldwych Theatre in 1985 and the following year a sell out one man show in the West End which transferred to Broadway then a tour.to Australia, New Zealand and the Far East.



Personal Quotes (13)

People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I'll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn't the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer.



[commenting in 2004 on Britain's proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill] To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.



Mr. Bean is essentially a child trapped in the body of a man. All cultures identify with children in a similar way, so he has this bizarre global outreach. And 10-year-old boys from different cultures have more in common than 30-year-olds. As we grow up, we acquire this sensibility that divides us.





I remember looking up Johnny English (2003) in a film guide and it said 'intermittently hilarious' - quite a good description of five good jokes and a lot of longueurs. I find it frustrating that, apart from Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), I have yet to be involved in a film of which I am totally proud.

The casual ease which some people move from finding something offensive to wishing to declare it criminal - and are then able to find factions within government to aid their ambitions - is truly depressing.





[on being overwhelmed by fans at a Toronto shopping mall] It's a bit disconcerting being treated like Madonna

[preparing to perform onstage the title role in Simon Gray's 'Quartermaine's Terms'] It's well known that tragedy and comedy are close bedfellows. It's rare, though, that you see them placed in such intimacy. Like most tragic figures, 'Quartermaine' is unaware of his own tragedy. What I love about him is his optimism. You don't tend to feel much sympathy for pessimistic people, but those who retain their optimism, despite the sadness of their lives, are interesting, engaging and sympathetic.





If I'm denied words, Mr. Bean's physicality and attitude to life is what I seem to acquire. In 1989, we put him on TV and no doubt the motivation was a belief that we had a character that could live in other markets and other countries. I was always envious of the fact that so many British musical artists in the late eighties, Phil Collins or David Bowie or Duran Duran or someone like that, assumed an international marketplace for their product, whereas British comedians don't. And I thought we have a tool here that will enable us to do that.

I've always required a formal setting, a stage or a film or TV studio in which to perform. And above all I need to become somebody else. I'm certainly not a stand-up comedian in any sense.



I definitely do not have the wit of Blackadder. I definitely require scriptwriters to provide that. And I don't think I'm as dark or cynical as Blackadder is in his view of the world. Probably I'm somewhere in between but closer to Mr. Bean. You know, the nice bits of Mr. Bean, because Mr. Bean has a very vindictive and selfish and nasty side to him. I hope I don't have too much of that.



The more success you have, the more pressure you feel to make things to a good standard, for movies you make to make money and that sort of thing. One misses those days when you were 19 or 23 and you just did what made you laugh. What you and your friends thought was funny. And you did it, and if they laughed, great, and if they didn't, it didn't matter. As you get older you always think about everything so much, you're so concerned that what you do should be good and should be successful that it's the success you're pursuing rather than the fun of doing it, which is what's so great when you're younger... What's difficult for me on a movie is not playing Mr. Bean. The problem is the scripts. The problem is the shaping of the shots. The problem is the editing. The problem is all those things.



All jokes about religion cause offence, so it's pointless apologizing for them. You should really only apologize for a bad joke.

