Age, Biography, and Wiki
Rowan Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham, England, to Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and Ella May. He is the youngest of four brothers. Atkinson's early life was marked by his interest in comedy and his academic pursuits, including degrees in Electrical Engineering from Newcastle University and The Queen’s College, Oxford.
| Occupation | Stand-up Comedians |
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| Date of Birth | 6 January 1955 |
| Age | 70 Years |
| Birth Place | Consett, County Durham, England |
| Horoscope | Capricorn |
| Country | England |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Atkinson stands at approximately 6 feet (183 cm) tall. However, specific details about his weight and other measurements are not widely available.
| Height | 183 cm |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Rowan Atkinson is divorced. He was previously married to Sunetra Sastry, with whom he had two children before their divorce. Atkinson is known to keep his personal life private, but he has been linked to Louise Ford since his divorce.
The youngest of four boys, his parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and Ella May (née Bainbridge), who married on 29 June 1945. His three older brothers are Paul, who died as an infant; Rodney, a Eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the UK Independence Party leadership election in 2000; and Rupert.
Atkinson was brought up Anglican. He was educated at the Durham Chorister School, a preparatory school, and then at St Bees School. Rodney, Rowan and their older brother Rupert were brought up in Consett and went to school with the future Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at Durham Choristers. After receiving top grades in science A levels, he secured a place at Newcastle University, where he received a BSc degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1975. Atkinson briefly embarked on a PhD study at The Queen's College, Oxford, where his father had studied in 1935, before devoting his full attention to acting. He graduated with an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering and was made an Honorary Fellow of the college in 2006. His master's thesis, published in 1978, considered the application of self-tuning control.
In addition to his supporting roles, Atkinson has also had success as a leading man. His television character Mr. Bean debuted on the big screen with Bean (1997) to international success. A sequel, Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007), (again inspired to some extent by Jacques Tati in his film Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot), also became an international success. He has also starred in the James Bond parody Johnny English film series (2003–present). In 2023, Atkinson stars as priest, Father Julius, in Wonka, a film which serves as a prequel to the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, exploring Willy Wonka's origins.
Atkinson met makeup artist Sunetra Sastry in the late 1980s when she was working for the BBC, and they married in February 1990. They had two children together, and lived in Apethorpe. His son Ben was an army officer in the Brigade of Gurkhas. In 2013, at the age of 58, Atkinson began a relationship with 32-year-old comedian Louise Ford after they met while performing in a play together. Ford ended her relationship with comedian James Acaster in order to be with Atkinson, who in turn separated from his wife in 2014 and divorced her in 2015. He has one child with Ford.
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| Husband | Sunetra Sastry (m. 1990-2015) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Rowan Atkinson's net worth is estimated at $150 million USD, which is approximately €137 million. However, some sources suggest his net worth could be higher, around €243 million, depending on the valuation of his assets and investments. His annual salary is reportedly around $20 million, primarily from his acting career and various business ventures.
Career, Business, and Investments
Atkinson's career spans over four decades, with his breakout role as Mr. Bean making him a global sensation. He has also appeared in other notable roles, such as Edmund Blackadder and Johnny English. Beyond acting, Atkinson is an avid car collector, owning several luxury vehicles, including a McLaren F1, which he sold for $12 million.
Atkinson has diversified his income through various investments, including real estate and technology. He owns properties in England and Greece, including a mansion in Oxfordshire valued at $10 million.
Atkinson was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest actors in British comedy in 2003, and among the top 50 comedians ever, in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with screenwriter Richard Curtis and composer Howard Goodall, both of whom he met at the Oxford University Dramatic Society during the 1970s. In addition to his 1981 BAFTA, Atkinson received an Olivier Award for his 1981 West End theatre performance in Rowan Atkinson in Revue. Atkinson was appointed CBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.
Atkinson first won national attention in The Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1976. He had already written and performed sketches for shows in Oxford by the Etceteras – the revue group of the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) – and for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), meeting writer Richard Curtis, and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.
In October 2014, Atkinson also appeared as Mr. Bean in a TV advert for Snickers. In 2015, he starred alongside Ben Miller and Rebecca Front in a sketch for BBC Red Nose Day in which Mr. Bean attends a funeral. In 2017, Atkinson appeared as Mr. Bean in the Chinese film Huan Le Xi Ju Ren. In February 2019, Atkinson appeared as Mr. Bean in a commercial for Emirati-based telecommunications company Etisalat. Atkinson, who also narrated the commercial, takes on multiple characters: a Scottish warrior, a gentleman and a lady from the Victorian era, a football player, a jungle man, a man revving up a chainsaw, a racing car driver, and a masked sword-wielding Spanish vigilante.
On 6 February 2018, Regular Capital announced that there would be a third series of Mr. Bean: The Animated Series in 2019 (voiced by Atkinson). Consisting of 26 episodes, the first two segments, "Game Over" and "Special Delivery", aired on 9 April 2019 on CITV in the UK as well as on Turner channels worldwide. All three series (104 episodes) were also sold to Chinese children's channel CCTV-14 in February 2019.
Atkinson's film career began with a supporting part in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983) and a leading role in Dead on Time (also 1983) with Nigel Hawthorne. He was in the 1988 Oscar-winning short film The Appointments of Dennis Jennings. He appeared in Mel Smith's directorial debut The Tall Guy (1989) and appeared alongside Anjelica Huston and Mai Zetterling in The Witches (1990), a film adaptation of Roald Dahl's dark fantasy children's novel. He played the part of Dexter Hayman in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), a parody of Rambo III, starring Charlie Sheen.
On 28 November 2012, Rowan Atkinson reprised the role of Blackadder at the "We are Most Amused" comedy gala for The Prince's Trust at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He was joined by Tony Robinson as Baldrick. The sketch involved the first new Blackadder material for 10 years, with Blackadder as CEO of Melchett, Melchett and Darling bank facing an enquiry over the banking crisis.
Social Network
While Rowan Atkinson is not particularly active on social media platforms, his work and personal life are frequently covered by media outlets and fan pages.
Atkinson has fronted campaigns for Kronenbourg, Fujifilm, and Give Blood. He appeared as a hapless and error-prone espionage agent named Richard Lathum in a long-running series of adverts for Barclaycard, on which character his title role in Johnny English, Johnny English Reborn and Johnny English Strikes Again was based. In 1999, he played the Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death, a special Doctor Who serial produced for the charity telethon Comic Relief. Atkinson appeared as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on the BBC's Top Gear in July 2011, driving the Kia Cee'd around the track in 1:42.2. Placing him at the top of the leaderboard, his lap time was quicker than the previous high-profile record holder Tom Cruise, whose time was a 1:44.2.
In October 2018, Atkinson (as Mr. Bean) received YouTube's Diamond Play Button for his channel surpassing 10 million subscribers on the video platform. Among the most-watched channels in the world, in 2018 it had more than 6.5 billion views. Mr. Bean is also among the most-followed Facebook pages with 94 million followers in July 2020, "more than the likes of Rihanna, Manchester United or Harry Potter".
In October 2012, he voiced his support for the Reform Section 5 campaign, which aims to reform or repeal Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, particularly its statement that an insult can be grounds for arrest and punishment. It is a reaction to several recent high-profile arrests, which Atkinson sees as a restriction of freedom of expression. In February 2014, Parliament passed a redaction of the statute which removed the word "insulting" following pressure from citizens.
Education
Atkinson pursued his academic career at Durham Choristers School and St. Bees School before studying Electrical Engineering at Newcastle University. He later earned a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from The Queen’s College, Oxford. During his time at Oxford, he began developing his comedic skills, which eventually led to his participation in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
After university, Atkinson did a one-off pilot for London Weekend Television in 1979 called Canned Laughter. He gained further national attention when he performed on the third The Secret Policeman's Ball in June 1979 which was broadcast on the BBC, and since then he has appeared on televised skits with various performers including Elton John, John Cleese ("Beekeeping") and Kate Bush, the latter with whom he performed the humorous song "Do Bears... ?" for the British charity event Comic Relief in 1986. Solo skits on television (and without dialogue) have included playing an invisible drum kit and an invisible piano. In October 1979, Atkinson first appeared on Not the Nine O'Clock News for the BBC, produced by his friend John Lloyd. He featured in the show with Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, and was one of the main sketch writers.
The success of Not the Nine O'Clock News led to Atkinson taking the lead role of Edmund Blackadder in the BBC mock-historical comedy Blackadder. His co-stars included Tony Robinson (who played his long-suffering sidekick Baldrick), Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. The first series, The Black Adder (1983), co-written by Atkinson and Richard Curtis, was set in the mediæval period, with the title character unintelligent and naïve. The second series, Blackadder II (1986), written by Curtis and Ben Elton, marked a turning point for the show. It followed the fortunes of one of the descendants of Atkinson's original character, this time in the Elizabethan era, with the character reinvented as a devious anti-hero. Metro states, "watching Atkinson work in series two is to watch a master of the sarcastic retort in action". Two sequels followed, Blackadder the Third (1987), set in the Regency era, and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), set in World War I. The Blackadder series became one of the most successful of all BBC situation comedies, spawning television specials including Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), Blackadder: The Cavalier Years (1988), and later Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999), which was set at the turn of the Millennium. The final scene of "Blackadder Goes Forth" (when Blackadder and his men go "over the top" and charge into No-Man's-Land) has been described as "bold and highly poignant". Possessing an acerbic wit and armed with numerous quick put-downs (which are often wasted on those at whom they are directed), Edmund Blackadder was ranked third (behind Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers) on a 2001 Channel 4 poll of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.
In November 2012, it emerged that Atkinson intended to retire Mr. Bean. "The stuff that has been most commercially successful for me – basically quite physical, quite childish – I increasingly feel I'm going to do a lot less of," Atkinson told The Daily Telegraph's Review. "Apart from the fact that your physical ability starts to decline, I also think someone in their 50s being childlike becomes a little sad. You've got to be careful". He has also said that the role typecast him to a degree. Despite these comments, Atkinson said in 2016 that he would never retire the character of Mr. Bean. Appearing on The Graham Norton Show on the BBC in 2018, Atkinson told Graham Norton that it was unlikely Mr. Bean would reappear on television again before also saying "you must never say never".
Atkinson's often visually based style, which has been compared to that of Buster Keaton, sets him apart from most modern television and film comics, who rely heavily on dialogue, as well as stand-up comedy which is mostly based on monologues. This talent for visual comedy has led to Atkinson being called "the man with the rubber face"; comedic reference was made to this in an episode of Blackadder the Third ("Sense and Senility"), in which Baldrick (Tony Robinson) refers to his master, Mr. E. Blackadder, as a "lazy, big-nosed, rubber-faced bastard".
Atkinson's early comedy influences were the sketch comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe, made up of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett, major figures of the 1960s British satire boom, and then Monty Python. Atkinson states, "I remember watching them avidly as students at university". He continued to be influenced by the work of John Cleese following his Monty Python days, regarding Cleese as being "a major, major inspiration", adding, "I think that he and I are quite different in our style and our approach, but certainly it was comedy I liked to watch. He was very physical. Yes, very physical and very angry". He was also influenced by Peter Sellers, whose characters Hrundi Bakshi from The Party (1968) and Inspector Clouseau from The Pink Panther films influenced Atkinson's characters Mr. Bean and Johnny English.
Atkinson holds a category C+E (formerly "Class 1") lorry driving licence, gained in 1981, because lorries held a fascination for him, and to ensure employment as a young actor. He has also used this skill when filming comedy material. In 1991, he starred in the self-penned The Driven Man, a series of sketches featuring Atkinson driving around London trying to solve his obsession with cars, and discussing it with taxi drivers, policemen, used-car salesmen and psychotherapists. A lover of and participant in car racing, he appeared as racing driver Henry Birkin in the television play Full Throttle in 1995.
