Biography
After spending the latter half of the 1980s making smaller films, he made his U.S. feature debut as a vengeance-minded IRA terrorist in the hit spy thriller, "Patriot Games" (1992), which opened the doors for the actor to play a wide range of bad guys. The following year, Bean was featured as a tough 19th century British officer, Richard Sharpe, in the long-running made-for-television movie series "Sharpe" (ITV, 1993- ) that gave him steady …
Latest Tv Credits
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Career Milestones
| Raised in Handsworth, England | ||
1983 | Made professional stage debut as Tybalt in "Romeo and Juliet" at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury (credited as Shaun Behan) | |
1984 | British TV-movie debut, "Winter Flight" | |
1985 | Spent a season acting on stage with the Young Writers Festival | |
1986 | Feature film debut in Derek Jarman's "Caravaggio" | |
1986 | Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company | |
1988 | Delivered a fine performance as an Irish janitor in Mike Figgis' "Stormy Monday" | |
1988 | Reunited with Jarman for "War Requiem" | |
1990 | Co-starred opposite Richard Harris in "The Field" | |
1990 | Portrayed the wicked Carver Doone in the Thames Television production "Lorna Doone" | |
1991 | Garnered praise for playing Lovelace on the BBC adaptation of "Clarissa" (aired on "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1992) | |
1992 | American film debut as an Irish radical in "Patriot Games" opposite Harrison Ford | |
1992 | Cast as gamekeeper Mellors opposite Joely Richardson's "Lady Chatterley" (BBC) | |
1993 | Landed breakthrough role as the Napoleonic era British soldier Richard Sharpe on "Sharpe," a series of 14 TV-movies adapted from Bernard Cornwell's novels (aired in the U.S. on "Masterpiece Theatre") | |
1994 | Cast as Lord Richard Fenton in the CBS miniseries "Scarlett," filmed as a sequel to "Gone With the Wind" (1939) | |
1994 | Portrayed Esau to Matthew Modine's "Jacob" in the TNT biblical movie | |
1997 | Cut a dashing figure as Vronsky in the remake of "Anna Karenina," starring Sophie Marceau | |
1998 | Co-starred in the international thriller "Ronin" | |
1998 | Portrayed real-life British soldier Andy McNab in the TV drama "Bravo Two Zero" | |
1999 | Played a man accused of murdering his family in the four-part ITV miniseries "Extremely Dangerous" | |
2000 | Offered a strong performance as a volatile ex-con in the British gangster film "Essex Boys" | |
2001 | Cast as the leader of a gang of jewel thieves who resort to blackmail and murder in the thriller "Don't Say a Word" | |
2001 | Portrayed Boromir in the Peter Jackson directed "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic novel | |
2002 | Had small but pivotal role in the futuristic thriller "Equilibrium" (a.k.a. "Librium") | |
2003 | Featured in the comedy "The Big Empty" opposite Jon Favreau | |
2003 | Reprised role as Boromir in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" | |
2004 | Cast as the Greek hero Odysseus in director Wolfgnag Petersen's epic "Troy" | |
2004 | Cast opposite Nicolas Cage and Harvey Keitel in "National Treasure" | |
2005 | Played Frances McDormand's husband in "North Country" | |
2006 | Co-starred with Radha Mitchell in the thriller "Slient Hill" | |
2007 | Starred in a remake of a 1986 horror film "The Hitcher" | |
2010 | Cast as Zeus, Lord of the Sky and Ruler of Olympus, in the film adaptation of "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" | |
2011 | Portrayed Eddard 'Ned' Stark on HBO's "Game of Thrones," based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series | |
2012 | Cast as the King in the fantasy comedy "Mirror Mirror," starring Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen and Lily Collins as Snow White | |
Awards
2002 | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
2004 | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
2011 | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in Game of Thrones |