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Sean Bean

Sean Bean (born Shaun Mark Bean; 17 April 1959) is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Bean made his professional debut in a production of Romeo and Juliet in 1983 at The Watermill Theatre.[2] Retaining his Yorkshire accent, he first found mainstream success for his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the ITV series Sharpe, which originally ran from 1993 to 1997.

Sean Bean

Shaun Mark Bean

(1959-04-17) 17 April 1959[1]

Actor

1983–present

  • Debra James
    (m. 1981; div. 1988)
  • (m. 1990; div. 1997)
  • (m. 1997; div. 2000)
  • Georgina Sutcliffe
    (m. 2008; div. 2011)
  • Ashley Moore
    (m. 2017)

3

Bean's film roles include Patriot Games (1992), GoldenEye (1995), Ronin (1998), Don't Say a Word (2001), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003), Equilibrium (2002), National Treasure (2004), Troy (2004), Flightplan (2005), North Country (2005), The Island (2005), Silent Hill (2006), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Black Death (2010), Jupiter Ascending (2015), and The Martian (2015).


His television roles include the BBC anthology series Accused, Broken, Game of Thrones, and the ITV historical drama series Henry VIII and Legends. As a voice actor, Bean has been featured in the video games The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, and the feature films Wolfwalkers and Mummies among others. Since 2002, Bean has been the main voice over for O2 adverts, with the most recent advert released in April 2024.


In 2022, Bean won the British Academy Television Award as Leading Actor in Time, a BBC One drama.[3]

Public image

Personality

Bean is often described as "down to earth" and has retained his Yorkshire accent.[18] He says that he does not mind being considered as a "bit of rough" by women.[55] He has developed a reputation as a loner, a label that he considers unfair.[18] He has described himself instead as quiet, and interviewers confirm that he is a "man of few words",[56] with one interviewer calling him "surprisingly shy".[57] He admits that he can be a workaholic; he reads books or listens to music in his spare time, and is a skilled pianist. He is also a keen gardener, welder, and sketcher.[58] Popular in his home county, a 2018 poll for Yorkshire Day saw Bean ranked the second greatest Yorkshireman ever behind Monty Python comedian, and fellow Sheffielder, Michael Palin.[59]

Acting style

Despite being professionally trained, Bean adopted an instinctive style of acting that some say makes him especially well-suited to portraying his characters' depths.[60] He has said that the most difficult part is at the start of filming when trying to understand the character.[61] After achieving this, he can snap in and out of character instantly. This ability to go from the quiet man on set to the warrior Boromir "amazed" Sean Astin during filming of The Fellowship of the Ring.[62] Other fans include directors Mike Figgis and Wolfgang Petersen, who described working with Bean as a "beautiful thing".[60]

Deaths of characters

Bean's characters tend to die on screen, a phenomenon that has gained notoriety on the internet and in The Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones and James Bond fandoms and become an Internet meme.[63] In September 2019, Bean revealed that he had been turning down roles that would have his character killed following Game of Thrones, so that his performances would not become predictable.[64][65] Bean's favourite on-screen death is Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring: "I thought his death was very heroic and triumphant and poignant. It had pathos."[66]

Personal life

Bean has been married five times and divorced four times. He married his secondary school sweetheart Debra James on 11 April 1981, and they were divorced in 1988. He met actress Melanie Hill at RADA, and they were married on 27 February 1990. Their first daughter was born in October 1987, and their second was born in September 1991. Their marriage ended in divorce in August 1997. During the filming of Sharpe, Bean met actress Abigail Cruttenden, and they were married on 22 November 1997. Their daughter was born in November 1998. They were divorced in July 2000. In addition to his three children, Bean has four grandchildren.[67]


Bean began dating actress Georgina Sutcliffe in 2006. After cancelling their planned January 2008 wedding on the eve of the ceremony for "personal reasons", he married Sutcliffe at the Marylebone Town Hall in London on 19 February 2008.[68] During allegations that Bean physically abused Sutcliffe in 2009,[57] domestic disturbances resulted in the police being called to their home in Belsize Park on three occasions. Bean and Sutcliffe's separation was announced on 6 August 2010,[69] and a decree nisi was granted on 21 December 2010.[70] He married Ashley Moore on 30 June 2017.[71]


Bean has been a fan of Sheffield United (the "Blades") since he was eight years old, and has a tattoo on his left shoulder that reads "100% Blade".[72][73] He opened their Hall of Fame in 2001 and, after making a six-figure contribution to the club's finances, was on their board of directors between 2002 and 2007 to help raise the profile of the club. He stepped down in 2007 to "go back to being an ordinary supporter" where he feels at home.[74] During his time there, he had a dispute with Neil Warnock, former manager of Sheffield United, after Warnock claimed that Bean stormed into his office and shouted at him in front of his wife and daughter when the club had just been relegated from the Premier League. Bean denies it, calling Warnock "bitter" and "hypocritical".[75] He wrote the foreword and helped to promote a book of anecdotes called Sheffield United: The Biography.[76] He also follows Yorkshire County Cricket Club.[77]


Bean has a tattoo of the number nine on his shoulder, written using Tengwar, in reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings films and the fact that his character was one of the original nine companions of the Fellowship of the Ring. Seven of the other actors of "The Fellowship" (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, and Viggo Mortensen) have the same tattoo. John Rhys-Davies, whose character was also one of the original nine companions, arranged for his stunt double to get the tattoo instead.[78]


Aligned with the British left, in 2015 Bean expressed support for Jeremy Corbyn and for "old Labour", the era before Tony Blair rebranded the party as New Labour; Bean also spoke of his admiration for Tony Benn.[79]


Bean is a Christian[80] and a gardener in his spare time.[81]

Trowbridge, Simon: The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Oxford: Editions Albert Creed (2010)  978-0-9559830-2-3

ISBN

at IMDb

Sean Bean

The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database