His parents were Eric Atkinson and Ella May. They were considered middle class people. He has two brothers Rodney, who was a politician who lost the European independence party leadership narrowly in 2000 and another Rupert . He was born in Connsett; his farther was a farmer and a company director. Rowan Atkinson was first influenced by Monty Pythons flying circus and later would be the reason that he would decide to do comedy acts. Rowan Atkinson was raised as an Anglican.
He went to school at Durham chorister's school (with Tony Blair). He was very good at schoolwork. He got some of the highest grades in his year level. Then he got a scholarship to St Bee's school and then studied Electrical Engineering at Newcastle University and at age 20 he got the highest marks in the whole year. While at university he started to do some drama acts for the Oxford drama society that is when he first relised that he had a talent for drama. One year while performing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival his friend, John Lloyd came up to him and asked him if he would like to perform for him and that started Rowan Atkinson's acting career
Achievements
After Rowan Atkinson's schooling, he started to perform at different festivals. His first TV role was in, “Not the 9 o'clock news”. He won several awards whilst in this role. That was when people saw Rowan Atkinson and saw his massive potential.
After that he started on the Blackadder series. There were four seasons and in all of them he played the role of the main character. The Blackadder series won numerous awards and that made him eleven million pounds richer than he already was. Then everybody wanted him to perform on his or her show.
He then started on his most famous show, Mr. Bean. After the first season another four were made. He has also been on lots of advertisements for Hitachi Fuji film and to give blood advertisements. The most famous one for Barclaycard, which is a credit, card provider giving him his character in Johnny English. Since then he has been in eighteen TV shows and nineteen movies and has won seven awards for his work on movies and TV shows. Rowan Atkinson is now working on even more movies and TV shows than before.
Rowan Atkinson has achieved many great things in his life he has won many awards certificates and trophies not only for drama but also for charity work like comic relief. He also supports charities including; amnesty international, CAFOD and save the children just to name a few (you might not know many of these charity groups because they are all English/European charity groups) Rowan Atkinson also does sessions for comic relief and other stress related issues that can be helped by laughing and relaxing.
Life
Aside from all the TV shows and movies and comedy Rowan Atkinson actually has a life in 1990 rowan Atkinson married Sunetra Sultry. They got married in the Russian tearoom in New York. The best man at the marriage was Stephen Fry. They met professionally on set at Blackadder, she was a makeup artist. At the moment they live in Apelthorpe in England. Rowan Atkinson has always had a fascination for cars. He started to drive his mother's Morris minor around his farm. When he was older he took apart engines and put them back together again to see how they worked. When he got his driving license he got a UK LGV license, which is a license that allows you to drive trucks. He got it because he has always had a fascination for trucks and to get him some money as a young actor.
Some of his cars include a Mclaren f1, a bugatti veyron one of only 300 in the world and many Aston Martins including the one used in Johnny English.
Rowan Atkinson also likes politics. In June 2005 he and other comedians rallied against the bill of racial and religious hate because he thought it would give some religious groups “a weapon of disproportionate power”
Contribution toComedy
Rowan Atkinson has redefined comedy in several ways he has changed the way comedy works.
Before Atkinson came along, comedy was mainly about funny stories and jokes and not about facial expressions and actions. Atkinson showed things can be funny without saying anything using only facial expressions, actions and little grunting noises.
Rowan Atkinson has contributed greatly to society and has made the world a better and a funnier plac.
