Spotlight on funnyman Rowan Atkinson
The much-loved British funnyman returns to the big screen in Johnny English Strikes Again
COMPILED BY NICI DE WET 1 The 63-year-old’s roots are far from showbiz – he grew up on a farm in Consett in northeast England with his two older brothers, Rupert and Rodney. He was a shy, quiet kid and describes himself as “introspective”. He and former British prime minister 2 Tony Blair were schoolmates. According to the school’s former headmaster, the two were quite opposite in their behaviour – Rowan was “shy and kept to himself ” while Blair was “very outgoing and a model pupil who volunteered for everything”. Rowan was obsessed with all 3 things electrical from a young age and went on to study electrical engineering. He graduated with a master’s degree from The Queen’s College in Oxford. He came up with his famous character, 4 Mr Bean, at university while part of a theatre group. He initially called him Mr White, then Mr Cauliflower, before settling on Mr Bean. The concept was “that of a child trapped in an adult body”, he says. “I think adults behaving like children is a pretty identifiable thing worldwide.” 5 His breakout role was in the BBC comedy sketch show Not the Nine
SO’Clock News, after which he landed the lead in the mediaeval sitcom The Black Adder, which turned him into a household name. 6 For most of his life he’s suffered from a mild stammer, which is why he largely shuns interviews. His character Mr Bean hardly speaks, and Johnny English doesn’t have lots of dialogue either. He’s a huge James Bond fan and 7 got a chance to play a supporting character in 1983’s Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery. He counts several of the 8 royals among his personal friends and attended the weddings of Prince William and Kate as well as Prince Charles and Camilla. 9 Rowan’s passionate about cars and his impressive collection includes a number of Aston Martins and a McLaren F1. But don’t give him a Porsche. “The typical Porsche people, I feel, aren’t my kind of people.” In 2015 he divorced his wife 10 of 25 years, make-up artist Sunetra Sastry, with whom he has two grown-up children. Soon afterwards he started dating British actress Louise Ford, whom he met when they performed together in a play in 2013. Last year he became a dad for the third time at 62 when they we lcomed a daughter.
‘To be successful you don’t need a beautiful face and heroic body. What you need is a skilful mind and the ability to perform’