Baal
Babies Grow Old
Back to Methuselah
Bad Weather
George Baker
Sean Baker
The Balcony
Bandits
Teresa Banham
Barbarians
Frances Barber
The Barbican
Howard Barker
Peter Barnes
Desmond Barrit
Bartholomew Fair
John Barton
Linda Bassett
Bastard Angel
Alan Bates
Simon Russell Beale
Sean Bean
The Beast
Maureen Beattie
Francis Beaumont
Beauty and the Beast
The Beaux' Stratagem
Becket
Samuel Beckett
Beckett Shorts
The Beggar's Opera
Brendan Behan
Katy Behean
Aphra Behn
Belcher's Luck
Believe What You Will
Christopher Benjamin
Paul Bentall
John Berger
Sarah Berger
Cicely Berry
Suzanne Bertish
Kirsty Besterman
Paul Bettany
The Bewitched
Bingo
Birdsong
The Birthday Party
The Bite of the Night
Colin Blakely
Claudie Blakley
Marjorie Bland
Brian Blessed
The Blue Angel
The Body
Michael Bogdanov
Robert Bolt
Edward Bond
Samantha Bond
Ken Bones
Hugh Bonneville
Laurence Boswell
John Bott
Dion Boucicault
John Bowe
Raymond Bowers
Robert Bowman
Stephen Boxer
Michael Boyd
Danny Boyle
David Bradley
John Bradley
Cathryn Bradshaw
Kenneth Branagh
Brand
Breaking the Silence
Bertolt Brecht
Howard Brenton
David Brierley
The Bright and Bold Design
Stephen Brimson Lewis
Jasper Britton
Brixton Stories
Jim Broadbent
The Broken Heart
Richard Brome
Peter Brook
Siân Brooke
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Bille Brown
Susan Brown
Brenda Bruce
Emily Bruni
Giordano Bruno
Robert Bryan
Georg Büchner
Mikhail Afanaseyev Bulgakov
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Bundle
Anthony Burgess
Alfred Burke
Alan Burrett
John Bury
Judy Buxton
Patsy Byrne
Lord Byron
Sean Bean appears on the stage so rarely that it has been generally forgotten that he was once a member of the RSC. A former welder from Sheffield, he has become one of Britain's best film stars. And yet the star of Sharpe (ITV, 1993-97, 2006) stayed with the RSC for two years (1986-87), playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Michael Bogdanov, RST, Barbican), Robin Starveling in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bill Alexander, RST), and Spencer in The Fair Maid of the West (Trevor Nunn, Swan, Mermaid). Speaking the verse in his Yorkshire accent, he was refreshingly low-key as Romeo in Michael Bogdanov's chic modern-dress production.
He had already acted in his first feature, Derek Jarman's Caravaggio (1986), and his first television drama, Winter Flight, while his early theatre work included Cabaret (Rotherham); Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (Watermill Theatre, Newbury); Journalist in The Last Days of Mankind and Animal Seller in Rosenkavalier (Glasgow Citizens', 1983); Lederer in Deathwatch (Foco Novo, UK Tour and Young Vic, 1985); and, for the Young Writers' Festival at the Royal Court (Theatre Upstairs, 1985), Art in Gone, Estate Agent in Stalemate and Terry in Who Knew Mackenzie. On leaving the RSC he landed the lead in Mike Figgis's first feature, Stormy Monday (1988), and his film career took off immediately. Most notably, he has played Tadgh McCabe in The Field (Jim Sheridan, 1990); a libertine in Clarrisa (BBC, 1991); an Irish terrorist pursuing Harrison Ford in Patriot Games (Philip Noyce, 1992); Mellors in Lady Chatterley's Lover, opposite his RSC contemporary Joely Richardson (Ken Russell, BBC, 1992); the villain, cleverly ironic, in the Bond film Goldeneye (1995); and Boromir in Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001).
Other film work: Derek Jarman's War Requiem (1988); Larry in How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989); Grey in Black Beauty (1994); Venning in Shopping (1994); Jimmy in the football film When Saturday Comes (1996); Vronsky opposite Sophie Moreau in Anna Karenina (Bernard Rose, 1997); Toombs in Airbourne (1998); Ronin (1998); Bravo Two Zero (1999); Essex Boys (2000); Equilibrium (2001); Don't Say a Word (2001); Odysseus in Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004); National Treasure (2004); The Island (2005); The Dark (2005); North Country (2005); Flightplan (2005); Silent Hill (2006); The Hitcher (2007); Outlaw (2007).
Other television: Samson and Delilah (1984); an episode of The Bill called 'Long Odds' (1984); Scarface in Exploits at West Poley (1985); Titus Andronicus (BBC Shakespeare, 1985); Captain Bolton in Troubles (1988); Dominic O'Brien in The Fifteen Streets (1989); Carver Doone in Lorna Doone (1990); Vic in Small Zones (BBC, 1990); Smith alongside Saskia Reeves and Juliet Stevenson in In the Border Country (Thaddeus O'Sullivan, Channel Four, 1991); Steve in My Kingdom for a Horse (BBC, 1991); Jack Morgan in Prince (BBC, 1991); Gabriel in Tell Me That You Love Me (BBC, 1991); Micky in Fool's Gold (1992); an episode of Inspector Morse called 'Absolute Conviction' (1992); Paul in A Woman's Guide to Adultery (1993); Sharpe (Tom Clegg, ITV, 1993-97); and Fenton in Scarlett (1994).
Bean's rare post-RSC stage appearances include Danny in Killing the Cat at the Royal Court (Soho Theatre Company, Theatre Upstairs, 1990), and an underrated Macbeth, opposite Samantha Bond, in the West End (Edward Hall, Albery, 2002).
Education: RADA
RSC: Joined 1986
Seasons: 1986 (Strat.)-87 (Lond.)
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