Bean has played a wide range of roles, from heroes to villians. His first successful role was his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the British television series Sharpe.[1] Since then he has become well known internationally for his roles as Boromir in The Lord of the Rings, James Bond's adversary Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye, Nicolas Cage's competitor Ian Howe in National Treasure, psychotic IRA fringe terrorist Sean Miller out for revenge on Harrison Ford in Patriot Games, Captain Rich in Flightplan with Jodie Foster, Odysseus in Troy and Chris DeSilva in Silent Hill. Bean has also been involved in video game voice acting, such as for the 2006 game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Early life and family
Bean was born Shaun Mark Bean in the Handsworth district of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, the son of Rita and Brian Bean.[2] Bean's father owned a fabrication shop, which he had set up with a colleague. The business employed a total of 50 people. Bean's mother worked as a secretary. He has a younger sister named Lorraine. Despite becoming relatively wealthy (his father owned a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow), the family never moved away from the council estate, because they preferred to remain close to friends and family.[3]
As a child, Bean smashed a glass door due to an argument over scissors. It left a piece of glass embedded in his leg and left a large scar that briefly impeded his walking.[2] This accident prevented him from pursuing his love of football professionally (although he would later carry out this dream in film). In 1975, Bean left Brook Comprehensive school with two O Levels in Art and English.[4] After a job at a supermarket and another for the council, Bean started working for his father's firm with a day release at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology doing a welding course. While at Rotherham, after stumbling on an arts class, Bean decided to pursue his interest in art. After attending courses at two other colleges, one for half a day and the other for less than a week, he returned to Rotherham College, where he came across a drama course that he subsequently signed up for. After some college plays and one at Rotherham Civic Theatre, he applied and received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), starting a seven term course in January 1981.[2]
Career
Early career
He graduated from RADA in 1983 having won the Silver Medal for his performance in Waiting for Godot.[5] He made his professional acting début in 1983 at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet.[2] His early work involved a mixture of stage and screen work. His first national exposure came in an advert for non-alcoholic lager.[6] Between 1984 and 1988 he toured the country with the Royal Shakespeare Company doing productions of Romeo and Juliet, Fair Maid of the West, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He appeared in his first film in 1986 when he played Ranuccio Thomasoni in Derek Jarman's film Caravaggio he then reunited with the director on War Requiem in 1988 which also starred Lord Olivier.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he became an established actor on British television.[7] He had notable performances in the BBC productions Clarissa and Lady Chatterley. His role in the latter became infamous for the sex scenes between him and Joely Richardson.[8] In 1990, Bean co-starred with Richard Harris in Jim Sheridan's adaption of the John B. Keane play, The Field.
Sharpe
Main article: Sharpe
However, it was the character Richard Sharpe that he would become most associated with. He was not the first actor to be chosen to play Sharpe. The actor who was picked first was Paul McGann. Two days into filming, however, McGann was injured in a football match, although the producers initially tried to work around his injury.[9] The 14-episode Sharpe television series was based on Bernard Cornwell's novels about the Napoleonic Wars and started with Sharpe's Rifles. The series followed the fortunes of Richard Sharpe as he rose from Sergeant to Lieutenant Colonel by the time of the Battle of Waterloo. It ran from 1993 to 1997 with 3 episodes produced each year. After several years of rumours, more episodes were produced, called Sharpe's Challenge, which aired in April 2006, and Sharpe's Peril which aired on ITV in the autumn of 2008 and will later be released on DVD.[10] Bean also played the role of Lord Richard Fenton in the TV Miniseries Scarlett based on the sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind.
Hollywood
His first notable Hollywood appearance was as an Irish republican terrorist in the 1992 film adaptation of Patriot Games.
This would be the first of several villains that he would portray.[11] He became Alec Trevelyan (MI6's 006), the major villain of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, as the character Spence (with Robert de Niro) in Ronin (1998), a wife-beating ex-con in Essex Boys (2000), the malevolent kidnapper-jewel thief in Don't Say a Word (2001) and the greedy treasure hunter Ian Howe, in National Treasure (2004).
In 1996, he finally achieved his childhood dream of playing for Sheffield United, albeit as Jimmy Muir in the film When Saturday Comes. Although the film was not critically acclaimed, Sean Bean got credit for a good performance.[12]
The Lord of the Rings
Main article: The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
His most widely seen role was as Boromir in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, although his only major part was in the The Fellowship of the Ring, and he only appeared in flashbacks in The Two Towers and The Return of the King, as well as in a scene from the extended edition of The Two Towers. There were rumors before casting of the film was completed that Bean had been considered for the role of Aragorn, although Bean could not confirm this in subsequent interviews. Due to his fear of flying, he was reluctant to take the helicopters out to remote mountain locations while filming for The Fellowship of the Ring. After a particularly rough ride, he vowed not to fly to a location again. In one instance, he chose to take a ski lift into the mountains and then hike the final few miles, all in full costume.[13]
Bean has a tattoo of the Elvish symbol for "nine", a reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. The other actors of "The Fellowship" (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, and Orlando Bloom) got the same tattoo with the exception of John Rhys-Davies whose stunt double got the tattoo instead.[14]
His tattoo also coincides with his appearance as Martin Septim in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Recent career
Later roles gave more scope for his acting abilities. He became the repentant Grammaton cleric who gives in to his emotions in Equilibrium in 2002, a quirky alien cowboy in 2003's The Big Empty, a sympathetic and cunning Odysseus in the 2004 film Troy, a villainous treasure hunter Ian Howe in National Treasure, a villainous scientist in The Island (2005) and a sympathetic soul in North Country (2005) , in which Bean converted his naturally heavy Sheffield accent into that of Minnesota slang, and a dedicated father in Silent Hill.
He cameoed with myriad other Hollywood stars in Moby's music video We Are All Made of Stars in February 2002.[15] In the same year, he returned to the stage in London performing in Macbeth alongside Samantha Bond.[16] Due to popular demand, the production ran until March 2003.
Bean's high profile and recognisable voice has created a number of opportunities for doing voice over work, especially in the British advertising industry.[17] He has featured in television adverts for O2, Morrisons and Barnardos as well as for Acuvue and the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States. He also does the voice over for the National Blood Service's television and radio campaign. He also voiced Martin Septim in the Role Playing video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.[18]
Bean has completed a one hour pilot, called Faceless, for American television. He has also appeared in Outlaw, an independent British production, and a remake of The Hitcher (released in January 2007), in which he put on an American accent again. He spent time in Norway filming another independent film called Far North.[16]
In 2005, he played "Captain Rich" in Flightplan.
Two films in production will reportedly star Bean. Come Like Shadows is an adaptation of Macbeth.[19] He had starred in a production of Macbeth on the London stage with Samantha Bond as Lady Macbeth with much critical success. As of 2008[update], this film as well as A Woman of No Importance are listed as being in pre-production according to the Internet Movie Data Base. The actor also has said that he would like to appear in Coronation Street (joking that he could be the milkman).[20] He has also stated that he would like to do some wildlife presenting sometime in the future.[21]
It has also recently been announced that Bean will be in the film Black Death, set during the time of the first outbreak of the Bubonic Plague, alongside Rupert Friend.
He is due to appear on Channel 4's Red Riding, having appeared on the February 2009 trailers.
Image
Often described as down-to-earth, Sean Bean has retained his Sheffield accent despite now living in London.[8] He is also described as a sex symbol; he was voted the UK's second sexiest man in 2004.[22] He admits he doesn't mind being considered by the ladies as a "bit of rough".[23]
He has developed a reputation as a loner, a label he considers unfair.[8] In addition, he has been accused of being a chauvinist; this originated after his second wife claimed he watched too much football, spent too much time in the pub and left clothes about the house.[24]
Acting style
Despite being professionally trained, Sean Bean adopts an instinctive style of acting.[25] He has said in interviews that the most difficult part is at the start of filming when trying to understand the character.[26] 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 figure "amazed" Sean Astin during filming of The Fellowship of the Ring.[27] Other fans include the directors Mike Figgis (Stormy Monday) and Wolfgang Petersen (Troy) who described working with him as a "beautiful thing".[25]
Personal life
He has been married four times and divorced three times.[28] His first marriage was to high-school sweetheart Debra James on 11 April 1981, but he was already in London attending RADA and the marriage broke up; then to actress Melanie Hill, who he met at RADA, between 27 February 1990 and August 1997, with whom he shares daughters Lorna and Molly; he then married Sharpe co-star Abigail Cruttenden on 22 November 1997, mother of his third daughter Evie Natasha; they divorced in July 2000. Bean married actress Georgina Sutcliffe on 19 February 2008, after previously cancelling the wedding less than twenty-four hours before it was set to take place.
He describes himself as quiet.[28] Although he admits he can be a workaholic, in his spare time he likes relaxing with a book or listening to music. He is also a keen gardener, and does both welding and sketching.
Bean's first love was football and he has been a passionate Sheffield United supporter from a young age (he now has a tattoo on his left shoulder that reads 100% Blade).[1] He was until December 2007 one of the directors of the club but finally decided to "go back to the terraces, where (he) truly belong(s)".[29] He also wrote the foreword and helped promote a book of anecdotes called Sheffield United: The Biography.[30] He also follows Yorkshire County Cricket Club.[21] He had some problems 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 after the 2006–07 season. Bean denies it, calling Warnock "bitter" and "hypocritical".
Awards and honours
Sean Bean is yet to receive a major individual award in the film industry. However he did receive 3 separate awards as part of the ensemble cast in Return of the King:[31] from the Screen Actors Guild, the National Board of Review and the Broadcast Film Critics Association all in 2004.
In his home city of Sheffield, he received an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 1997 and a second doctorate, a Doctor of Letters in English Literature from the University of Sheffield in July 2007.[32][31] He was also selected as one of the inaugural members of Sheffield Legends, the Sheffield equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bean quoted "I did get a doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University about 11 or 12 years ago so now I'm a double doctor. But this was wonderful, especially from my home city."[32][31] He is to have a plaque in his honour placed in front of Sheffield Town Hall
