Happy Birthday: Rowan Atkinson

If I’m denied words, Mr. Bean’s physicality and attitude to life is what I seem to acquire. In 1989, we put him on TV and no doubt the motivation was a belief that we had a character that could live in other markets and other countries. I was always envious of the fact that so many British musical artists in the late eighties, Phil Collins or David Bowie or Duran Duran or someone like that, assumed an international marketplace for their product, whereas British comedians don’t. And I thought we have a tool here that will enable us to do that.

Happy Birthday: Kate McKinnon

I was very serene, and I still am, until I start talking in another voice, then suddenly I have a lot of volume and I’m frantic. But I didn’t want to be one of those people who’s always talking in accents in real life, so I started doing sketch comedy.