Mr Bean Turns 63: The Many Faces of Sir Rowan Atkinson

On Sir Rowan Atkinson’s 63rd birthday, here’s a quick look at the many roles he has regaled audiences with over the years.

Before there was Mr Bean, there was Blackadder. A comedic retelling of history, or “alternative history”, the Blackadder series stars Atkinson as the titular Blackadder, who unlike the silent Bean, is eloquent in his comedic misadventures.

The Black Adder premiered in 1983, and based on its success, Atkinson would go on to star in Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third, Blackadder Goes Forth, two Blackadder short films, and one made-for-TV special film.

A year after the fourth season of the Blackadder series, Blackadder Goes Forth, Mr Bean would burst into the scene, stumbling along absently and eliciting laughs with barely a word. For Atkinson, who carried Blackadder on his able shoulders with his outrageous humour and lines, Mr Bean would prove to be an entirely different role. The character barely spoke, relying purely on physical comedy and body language to deliver laughs.

The show topped the comedy series charts from 1990 to 1995 – leaving behind a generation of viewers that will remember Mr Bean as the first ever role they saw Sir Rowan in.

In a role that re-established his mettle as an actor to be reckoned with, and not just in comic roles, Atkinson played the titular Jules Maigret in BBC’s take on the fictional French detective – the star of 76 novels and 28 short stories by Belgian writer Georges Simenon. The project came four years after he announced that he was retiring Mr Bean.

He can pull off Blackadder, Maigret, and Mr Bean with ease, but even when he’s off screen, Atkinson manages to steal the scene. In his role as Zazu, in Disney’s The Lion King, Atkinson plays a wise-cracking hornbill.

In this 2003 comedy, a spoof of the James Bond series, Atkinson plays a suave secret agent. The movies follow Atkinson on his (surprise, surprise) misadventures as a 007-style secret agent who gets called in when “all the other secret agents are dead.”

The 2003 movie was followed up by a sequel in 2011 – Johnny English Reborn – and one more sequel is set to release in September 2018.

Bonus fun fact: Rowan Atkinson starred in the James Bond film, Never Say Never, featuring Sean Connery as 007.