Mr Bean - Individual Trading Card from the Base Set issued by Dart Flipcards in 1998.

Mr. Bean is a fictional character from the British comedy television programme Mr. Bean, its animated spin-off, and two live-action feature films. He was created and is portrayed by Rowan Atkinson and made his first appearance on television in the pilot episode which first aired on 1 January 1990.

Mr. Bean lives in Flat 2, 12 Arbour Road, Highbury, London, England. His first name and his profession, if any, are never mentioned; he introduces himself simply as "Bean." In the first film adaptation, Bean, "Mr." appears on his passport in the "first name" field, and he is shown employed as a guard at London's National Gallery. His date of birth is given variously as 15 September 1956, or as 6 January 1955 (the latter being Rowan Atkinson's actual date of birth).

At the beginning of episode two onwards, Mr. Bean falls from the sky in a beam of light, accompanied by a choir singing Ecce homo qui est faba ("Behold the man who is a bean"), recorded by Southwark Cathedral Choir. These opening sequences were initially in black and white in episodes two and three, and were intended by the producers to show his status as an "ordinary man cast into the spotlight". However, later episodes showed Mr. Bean dropping from the night sky in a deserted London street against the backdrop of St Paul's Cathedral. At the end of episodes three and six he is also shown being sucked right back up into the sky in the respective background scenes (black scene in episode 3 and street scene in episode 6). Atkinson has acknowledged that Mr. Bean "has an alien aspect to him". In the animated series (episode, "Double Trouble") he is taken inside a spacecraft with "aliens" who look exactly like him and even have their own plushy toys. In an obvious homage, the aliens send him back home in a beam of light and music similar to the opening of the original Mr. Bean series.

Mr. Bean wears a brown tweed jacket, a white shirt, a thin red tie, brown trousers, black shoes and a black digital calculator watch. He occasionally changes his outfit to suit the scene he is in.

In the episode "The Return of Mr. Bean", when Bean is heading to a fancy restaurant to celebrate his birthday, he wears a grey suit with a dark red tie. In the same episode he wears a tuxedo. In the episode "The Curse of Mr. Bean", when Bean is heading for the park to make a sandwich for his lunch, he wears a long dark green overcoat with a light green shirt and a dark green tie. In the same episode when Bean goes to watch a horror film with his girlfriend, he is wearing his trademark clothes but with a light colored brown sweater instead of his trademark brown tweed jacket.

Mr. Bean is immature, self-absorbed, extremely competitive and brings various abnormal schemes and contrivances to everyday tasks. He rarely speaks, and when he does, it is normally only a few mumbled words which are in a comically low-pitched voice. He also does not like people taking his things. Mr. Bean often seems unmindful of basic aspects of the way the world works, and the programme typically features his attempts at what would generally be considered simple activities, such as going for a swim, using a television set, redecorating, or attending church. The humor largely comes from his original (and often absurd) solutions to problems – usually self-inflicted – and his total disregard for others when solving them, his pettiness and occasional malevolence.

Influences

Atkinson cited the earlier comedy character Monsieur Hulot, created by French comedian and director Jacques Tati, as an influence on the character. Atkinson also cited the influence of Peter Sellers, who had previously played similar "fumbling fool" characters, notably Hrundi Bakshi in The Party (1968) and Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther films.

Appearances

Mr. Bean is the main character of both the titular TV series and its animated spin-off, as well as of feature films based on the series, Bean (1997) and Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007). Bean also made guest appearances at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and in the 2017 Chinese film Top Funny Comedian: The Movie. Atkinson also portrayed Bean in several sketches for Comic Relief and also in television advertisements throughout the years such as REMA 1000, M&M's, Fujifilm, Nissan Tino, Snickers and most recently for Etisalat in 2019.

Bean (also known as Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie or Bean: The Movie) is a 1997 comedy film directed by Mel Smith and written by Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll. Based on the British sitcom series Mr. Bean created by Rowan Atkinson and Curtis, the film stars Atkinson in the title role, with Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Sandra Oh and Burt Reynolds in supporting roles. In the film, Bean works as a security guard at the National Gallery in London before being sent to the United States to talk about the unveiling of the painting Whistler's Mother.

Produced by Working Title Films and Tiger Aspect Films, Bean was released in the United Kingdom on 2 August 1997 and in the United States on 7 November 1997 by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Gramercy Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a box-office success, having grossed $251.2 million worldwide against an $18 million budget. A standalone sequel, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was released in 2007.

Plot

Well-meaning yet clumsy and destructive Mr. Bean works as a security guard at the National Gallery in London. When the gallery's board of directors, who despise Bean for sleeping on the job, fail to fire him under the chairman's orders, they instead select Bean as their representative for the transfer of James McNeill Whistler's 1871 portrait Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (Whistler's Mother) to the Grierson Art Gallery in Los Angeles, purchased by philanthropist General Newton for $50 million, in an attempt to get rid of him for a while.

Grierson's curator David Langley, impressed with the false profile of "Dr. Bean", offers to accommodate Bean in his home for two months against his family's wishes. After Bean pranks the airport police by pretending to have a gun and accidentally destroys the family's prized possessions, David's wife, Alison, leaves for her mother's house along with their children, Kevin and Jennifer. David then begins to question Bean's status as an art expert following a visit to Pacific Park, where Bean is arrested by Lieutenant Brutus - the same police officer who interrogated him at the airport - after speeding up a simulator ride to make it more exciting for him. After Bean accidentally ruins a dinner with Mr. Grierson and his wife, David discovers that Bean is not a doctor and knows nothing about art.

The next day, Bean accidentally sneezes on Whistler's Mother and damages the painting with an ink-stained tissue and lacquer thinner while cleaning it. Fearing that the damage would cost him his job and possibly get him prosecuted, David becomes despondent and gets drunk with Bean, though his family returns out of pity. That night, determined to save David's career, Bean sneaks back into the gallery, incapacitates the security guard with laxatives and replaces the defaced Whistler's Mother with a reprinted poster of it coated in egg whites and nail polish to resemble the real one, which successfully fools everyone at the ceremony the next day. Bean gives a speech about the painting, expressing an improvised and sentimental opinion about it that wins the crowd's approval.

Brutus informs David that Jennifer has recently got into a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend, prompting David and Bean to rush to the hospital. While wandering around the hospital, Bean gets mistaken for a surgeon and is forced into a surgery room, where he encounters Brutus - who has been shot while dealing with a mugging on the way to the hospital - and saves his life by inadvertently removing the bullet from his body. David then begs Bean, unaware of his true identity, to wake Jennifer up from her unconscious state, in which he succeeds after an accident with a defibrillator sends Bean flying and landing on her. Grateful for having their daughter back and wondering how to repay their doctor, David and Alison are surprised when Bean reveals his true identity. Per Bean's suggestion, they repay him by allowing him to stay with them for one more week.

Bean spends quality time together with David and his family, before David accompanies him back to the airport for his flight home to London and thanks him for everything as he departs. At home, Bean goes to sleep with his bedroom now decorated with photographs of his time in Los Angeles, as well as the original Whistler's Mother painting he smuggled back with him.

Cast

Production

In November 1991, a year after the original series premiered, Variety announced that 20th Century Fox was producing a film adaptation of Mr. Bean in association with the show's production company, Tiger Television, after the studio remade two sketches from the series into short films released theatrically, Mr. Bean Takes an Exam and Mr. Bean Goes to a Première. The film was later instead produced by the UK-based Working Title Films and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, under the latter's Gramercy Pictures banner.

Deleted and alternative scenes

The North American release differs from the international release, as it includes an additional scene in which David suggests that Bean stuff the turkey while he distracts the Griersons during the dinner party. After losing his watch in the turkey, Bean gets his head stuck inside of it (a recycled gag from "Merry Christmas Mr. Bean") and stumbles blindly around the kitchen and the dining room.

The international release includes two alternate scenes on either side of the deleted turkey scene in order to explain its absence. When searching the refrigerator, Bean first finds two frankfurters and then the onion that he offers as an appetizer. Upon finding the turkey, David asks him if he has cooked a turkey before and he replies, "Oh yes." After the two shove the turkey into the microwave oven, Bean suggests running it for 20 minutes as opposed to the 5-hour cooking time suggested by David.

According to Atkinson in the documentary Bean Scenes Unseen, the differing scenes were the result of very different reactions from the American and European audiences in test screenings.