Rowan Atkinson filmography

English actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson has appeared in twenty films, over thirty film series, and over eight television advertisements.

Rowan Atkinson filmography

Atkinson at the Johnny English Reborn premiere in 2011
Film	22
Television series	35
Music videos	5
Advertising	11

Overview

After university, Atkinson toured with Angus Deayton as his straight man in an act that was eventually filmed for a television show. After the success of the show, he did a one-off pilot for London Weekend Television in 1979 called Canned Laughter. Atkinson then went on to do 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 him taking the lead role in the medieval sitcom The Black Adder (1983), which he also co-wrote with Richard Curtis. After a three-year gap, in part due to budgetary concerns, a second series was broadcast, this time written by Curtis and Ben Elton. Blackadder II (1986) followed the fortunes of one of the descendants of Atkinson's original character, this time in the Elizabethan era. The same pattern was repeated in the two more sequels 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". During the 2014 centennial of the start of World War I, Michael Gove and war historian Max Hastings complained about the so-called "Blackadder version of history".

Atkinson in 1997, promoting Bean. In 2014, young adults from abroad named Mr. Bean among a group of people they most associated with UK culture.

Atkinson's other creation, the hapless Mr. Bean, first appeared on New Year's Day in 1990 in a half-hour special for Thames Television. The character of Mr. Bean has been likened to a modern-day Buster Keaton, but Atkinson himself has stated that Jacques Tati's character Monsieur Hulot was the main inspiration.

Several sequels to Mr. Bean appeared on television until 1995, and the character later appeared in a feature film. Bean (1997) was directed by Mel Smith, Atkinson's colleague in Not the Nine O'Clock News. A second film, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was released in 2007. In 1995 and 1996, Atkinson portrayed Inspector Raymond Fowler in The Thin Blue Line television sitcom written by Ben Elton, which takes place in a police station located in fictitious Gasforth.

Atkinson has fronted campaigns for Kronenbourg, Fujifilm, and Give Blood. Atkinson 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 and Johnny English Reborn was based. In 1999, he played the Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death, a special Doctor Who serial produced for Comic Relief. Atkinson appeared as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on 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 until Matt LeBlanc later recorded a 1:42.1 lap time.

Atkinson appeared at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London as Mr. Bean in a comedy sketch during a performance of "Chariots of Fire", playing a repeated single note on synthesizer. He then lapsed into a dream sequence in which he joined the runners from the film of the same name (about the 1924 Summer Olympics), beating them in their iconic run along West Sands at St. Andrews, by riding in a minicab and tripping the front runner. Atkinson starred as Jules Maigret in Maigret, a series of TV films from ITV.

Atkinson's film career began with a supporting part in the James Bond movie 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 Roald Dahl's The Witches (1990). He played the part of Dexter Hayman in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), a parody of Rambo III, starring Charlie Sheen.

Atkinson gained further recognition with his turn as a verbally bumbling vicar in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and featured in Disney's The Lion King (also 1994) as the voice of Zazu the red-billed hornbill. He also sang the song I Just Can't Wait to Be King in The Lion King. Atkinson continued to appear in supporting roles in comedies, including Rat Race (2001), Scooby-Doo (2002), Love Actually (2003) and the crime comedy Keeping Mum (2005), which also starred Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith and Patrick Swayze.

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), also became an international success. He has also starred in the James Bond parody Johnny English (2003), its sequel, Johnny English Reborn (2011) and its second sequel; Johnny English Strikes Again (2018).

Film

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Fundamental Frolics	Himself
1982	Mr. Kershaw's Dream System	Mr. Kershaw	Short promotional film
1983	Dead on Time	Bernard Fripp	Short film
	Never Say Never Again	Nigel Small-Fawcett
1988	The Appointments of Dennis Jennings	Dr. Schooner	Short film
1989	The Tall Guy	Ron Anderson
1990	The Witches	Mr. Stringer
1993	Hot Shots! Part Deux	Dexter Hayman
1994	Four Weddings and a Funeral	Father Gerald
	The Lion King	Zazu	Voice
1997	Bean	Mr. Bean	Also executive producer
2000	Maybe Baby	Mr. James
2001	Rat Race	Enrico Pollini
2002	Scooby-Doo	Emile Mondavarious
2003	Johnny English	Johnny English	Nominated — European Film Awards – Jameson People's Choice Award for Best Actor
	Love Actually	Rufus
2005	Keeping Mum	Reverend Walter Goodfellow
2007	Mr. Bean's Holiday	Mr. Bean
2011	Johnny English Reborn	Johnny English
2017	Huan Le Xi Ju Ren	Mr. Bean	Cameo
2018	Johnny English Strikes Again	Johnny English	Also producer
2023	Wonka	Father Julius
TBA	Untitled fourth Johnny English film †	Johnny English	In production

Television

Key

†	Denotes television shows that have not yet been released

List of Rowan Atkinson television credits

Year	Title	Role(s)	Notes
1979	Rowan Atkinson presents… Canned Laughter	Robert Box/Mr. Marshall/Dave Perry	One-off Pilot episode; also writer
	The Secret Policeman's Ball	Himself	Television special
1979–1982	Not the Nine O'Clock News	Various roles	28 episodes; also writer
1980	Peter Cook & Co		Television special
	The Innes Book of Records		1 episode
1981	The Secret Policeman's Other Ball	Various roles	Television special
1983–1989	Blackadder	Edmund Blackadder	24 episodes; also co-creator and writer
1986	Saturday Live	Himself (host)	1 episode
1987	The Grand Knockout Tournament	Lord Knock of Alton	Television special
1990–1995	Mr. Bean	Mr. Bean	15 episodes; also co-creator and writer
1991	Bernard and the Genie	Bernard's Boss	Television film
	The Driven Man	Himself	Television documentary; also writer
1992	Rowan Atkinson Live		Television special; also writer
	Funny Business	Kevin / Narrator	6 episodes; also writer
	A Bit of Fry & Laurie	Guest	1 episode
	Laughing Matters	Himself (host)	Television documentary
1995–1996	The Thin Blue Line	Inspector Raymond Fowler	14 episodes
1996	Late Night with Conan O'Brien	Himself	1 episode
1999	Blackadder: Back & Forth	Lord Blackadder / King Edmund III / Centurion Blaccadius	Television film
	Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death	The Doctor	Television special
2001	Popsters	Nasty Neville	Television short
2002–2004, 2015–2019	Mr. Bean: The Animated Series	Mr. Bean	Voice 130 episodes; also executive producer
2003	Lying to Michael Jackson	Martin Bashir	Television short
2005	Spider-Plant Man	Peter Piper / Spider-Plant Man
2010	Bondi Rescue	Mr. Bean	1 episode
2012	The Olympics Opening Ceremony	Himself/Mr. Bean	Television special
2013	Live from Lambeth Palace sketches	The Archbishop of Canterbury
2015	Mr. Bean: Funeral	Mr. Bean	Television short
	Horrible Histories	Henry VIII of England	1 episode
2016–2017	Maigret	Jules Maigret	4 episodes
2017	Red Nose Day Actually	Rufus	Television short
	British Airways Safety Video: Director's Cut	Mr. Bean
2018–2020	Handy Bean		20 episodes
2019	One Red Nose Day and a Wedding	Father Gerald	Television short
2022	Man vs. Bee	Trevor Bingley	9 episodes; also co-creator

Commercials

Year	Title	Role
1980	Kronenbourg 1664	Customs officer
1983	Appletiser	Fisherman
1989	Give Blood	Doctor
1991–1997	Barclaycard	Richard Latham
1994	REMA 1000	Mr. Bean
1997	M&M's
1999	Nissan Tino
	Fujifilm
2014	Snickers
2018	Etisalat	Agent One
2019	Etisalat	Mr. Bean
2024	Migros	Chocolatier

Music videos

Year	Artist	Title	Role
1991	Hale and Pace	"The Stonk"	Mr. Bean
1992	Mr. Bean and Smear Campaign	"(I Want To Be) Elected" (featuring Bruce Dickinson)
1997	Boyzone	"Picture of You"
2007	Matt Willis	"Crash"
2018	Olly Murs	"Moves" (featuring Snoop Dogg)	Bartender

Atkinson also appeared in a song in the 1970s, "I like trucking". The song was made of "Not the nine O clock news".