A Few Facts About Rowan   Atkinson

* Full name is Rowan Sebastian Atkinson, born on January 6, 1955 in Consett, County Durham, England.* Parents are Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and Ella May Bainbridge.* Youngest of three: Rodney and Rupert are his older brothers.* Rodney Atkinson is a Eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election in 2000.

* Went to school with future Prime Minister Tony Blair.* Got a MSc in electrical engineering at Oxford. He did his thesis on self-tuning control systems.* Met writer Richard Curtis and composer Howard Goodall at Oxford. He would continue to work with them throughout his career.* Was so quiet during meetings for sketches at Oxford that Richard Curtis compared him to a “stuffed animal”.

* First gained national attention in the Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at age twenty-one.* Has said that one of the greatest moments of his life was to get a Class 1 license driving a semi-truck (or “lorry”) in 1980.* “Not the Nine O’Clock News” was originally conceived as a show for Rowan. He was given the choice of doing the show by himself or having cast members. He chose the latter.

* Dated actress Leslie Ash early in his career.* His film career started out when he was a supporting character in the “unofficial” James Bond movie “Never Say Never Again” (1983).* Suffers from a mild stammer. Over-enunciating “B” words help with this, and was the basis of the ongoing “Bob” joke in the “Blackadder” series.

* Met wife Sunetra Sastry in the mid-1980s when she was working as a make-up artist for the second “Blackadder” series (seen above) for the BBC. Originally she was the make-up artist for Stephen Fry. Fry considered asking her out until Atkinson confessed that he wanted to and would Fry mind changing make-up artists? They moved in together not long after and got married at the Russian Tea Room in New York City, New York in February of 1990. Stephen Fry was his best man.* Sastry’s father is Indian and her mother is British.

* During their first date Atkinson said almost nothing except for a request to pass the ketchup. At one point he got up to use the bathroom and was gone for fifteen minutes, saying later that his zipper was stuck and he had to find a safety pin.

* Atkinson and Sastry have two children: Benjamin Alexander (born 1993) and Lily Grace (born 1995). At times Atkinson has performed theater skits at their school.* The character of Johnny English started out in a series of ads for Barclay card.

* In 2001 while on a trip in Africa the plane he and his family were in started to go down because the pilot had passed out. He managed to gain control of the plane before he and his wife roused the pilot. The plane landed safely.* Has an estimated worth of 70 million pounds. This allows him to indulge in his passion for cars.* First car was a Morris Minor on the family farm, which he put back together in running order and drove on the farm.* Writes for British car magazines.

* Owns a McLaren F1 which has been involved in two high profile crashes: the first in 1999 when he had a fender bender. The second in August 2011 when he hydro-planed into a tree. He had to be taken to the hospital for a dislocated shoulder.* Has a little known documentary called “The Driven Man” which is a series of sketches exploring his obsession with cars.* Likes to race.

* In “Star in a reasonably priced car” section of Top Gear he got the best time in the entire series while driving a Kia Cee’d at 1:42.2. He was later beaten by Matt LeBlanc with a time of 1:42.1.* Has donated money to the possibility of a statue of George Orwell outside the BBC headquarters.* In June of 2005 he led a coalition of the UK”s most prominent actors and writers to review the controversial “Racial and Religious Hatred Bill” at the British Parliament. They felt it would give religious groups overwhelming power to censor the arts.

* Has done various things for the stage, including the play The Nerd in 1984 with a young Christian Bale in one of his first works.* Played Fagin in “Oliver!” in the West End but had to bow out in April of 2009 for hernia surgery.* Currently (as of this writing) on stage at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre in the play Quartermaine’s Term.