Biography
Before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Sean Bean was going to enter his father's Sheffield steel fabrication business as a welder. He changed his mind after he garnered praise for acting in a few roles in local theater while taking an art class at Rotherham College. Bean received a scholarship to the prestigious academy and graduated a few years later with the Silver Medal for his performance in Waiting for Godot. Shortly thereafter, Bean performed in several West End productions. He also appeared in Romeo and Juliet with the Glasgow Citizens Theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. In the first he played Tybalt and in the second he played Romeo. Following more stage experience, Bean made his feature film debut in 1986 in
Derek Jarman's Carvaggio. Two years later, after returning to the stage, Bean appeared in
Mike Figgis'
Stormy Monday and in another Jarman effort,
War Requiem. In addition to his filmwork, Bean also has a thriving television career that began in the mid-'80s. Notable television work includes
Clarissa (1992) and
Sharpe (1993). It is as a "bad guy" in films such as
Patriot Games and
Golden Eye that Bean is best-known in the U.S., though in the 1997 remake of
Anna Karenina, he plays the dashing and romantic Count Vronsky. After joining
Robert De Niro and
Jean Reno for some international espionage in
John Frankenheimer's
Ronin (1998), taking a psychotic turn in
Essex Boys (2000) and kidnapping the daughter of a respected adolescent therapist in
Don't Say a Word (2001), Bean made his way to New Zealand for a role in director
Peter Jackson's eagely anticipated
Lord of the Rings trilogy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide