18 Things Everyone Should Know About Rowan Atkinson AKA Mr. Bean
Diply.com
Growing up, we loved watching Mr. Bean get himself into trouble because he couldn’t figure out the simplest things in life.
I miss that show, don’t you? Rowan Atkinson became a star because of that show and he’s gone on to star in Mr. Bean movies and several other successful projects. You recognize his face and his weird facial expressions, but you might not realize that there’s more to Rowan than Mr. Bean. So here are some interesting facts about the actor!
- He voiced a pretty important character in The Lion King. He was cast as Zazu, the red-billed hornbill.
And yes, he does his own singing on “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King!” *listens to it on repeat because who even knew it was Mr. Bean*
- So how did Rowan even come up with the character of Mr. Bean? It started when he was getting his master’s degree at Oxford. He was asked to do a sketch at the playhouse and the idea came to him when he was standing in front of the mirror and fooling around with weird facial expressions.
According to him, “this strange, surreal, sort of non-speaking character evolved.”
- Rowan is pretty quiet about his personal life and doesn’t tend to give many interviews. It’s because he has suffered with a stammer for several years.
He sometimes has trouble pronouncing words that begin with “B” and are immediately followed by a vowel. To get around those words, he has to pause a bit before saying them.
- Before Rowan settled on Mr. Bean, he went through a number of different names for the bumbling character. He first went with Mr. White and Mr. Cauliflower before settling on the name we now know.
- The Queen gave him the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2013 for his work.
- He retired Mr. Bean in 2012 because he realized that the character was too childish for him. “The stuff that has been most commercially successful for me – basically quite physical, quite childish – I increasingly feel like I’m going to do a lot less of.”
“Apart from the fact that your physical ability starts to decline, I also think someone in their fifties being childlike becomes a little sad. You’ve got to be careful.”
Yup…makes sense.
- According to his good friend Stephen Fry, Rowan loves to just ride go-karts around his tennis courts.
- He was lucky enough to be one of the guests at Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles’ wedding!
Whoa. Talk about having a really cool group of friends!
- Mr. Bean was broadcast in over 200 countries. There doesn’t seem to be a country out there that doesn’t enjoy the show!
- Rowan has a daughter named Lily who appeared in Mr. Bean’s Holiday! She no longer considers herself an actor. She’s focused on her singing career now!
- Rowan was asked what he has in common with his famous character. He said that IRL he really can wiggle his ears!
- There were only ever 14 episodes of the show produced. But the character was so popular that it spawned two successful movies, an animated series, a video game and books!
- Rowan is a huge fan of sports cars and collects them for fun!
Just like Mr. Bean, he treats his cars like his friends.
- He’s a huge fan of James Bond! He started his career playing a character in Never Say Never Again.
- Apparently, he was really quiet on his first date with his ex-wife. The only thing he said was “pass the ketchup” when they went out to dinner.
- He has been listed in The Observer for the top 50 funniest British actors.
And obviously, we totally agree!
- Even though he loves sports cars, he said one car he’ll NEVER own is a Porsche.
He said, “I have a problem with Porsches. They’re wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people — and I wish them no ill — are not, I feel, my kind of people. I don’t go around saying that Porsches are a pile of dung, but I do know that psychologically I couldn’t handle owning one.”
- He’s actually very well educated and graduated from TWO universities — Newcastle University and Oxford University.
