The wealthy working class

Shaun Mark Bean (for that is his real name!) was born in Sheffield to a family which were proudly working class – but were actually rather wealthy. His father was a prominent local businessman who ran a welding factory, but loyalty to friends and family meant they stayed living on a council estate.

Sean worked for a time at the factory, and later recalled the strange duality of their existence. "I suppose we were working class but we'd drive to work in a Silver Shadow," he said. "We'd get in the Rolls-Royce, I'd put my steel-capped boots on, stop at the top of the road, get the Daily Mirror and jump back in the Rolls. It was quite bizarre."

The unexpected thesp

Despite having a ready-made career as his father's apprentice all laid out for him, the teenage Sean was restless and hungry for something else. As well as working for his dad, he had stints as a council worker (shovelling snow) and a Marks and Spencer assistant. He eventually decided to bite the bullet and enroll on a fine arts course, as he always fancied himself a bit of a painter (and had actually sold some pictures at a Sheffield gallery).

It was while studying art that he stumbled across drama classes being given in the same building, and that was it. Sean fell in love with acting almost immediately, and proved so good at it that he won a scholarship for RADA, the legendary acting academy. His parents and friends took the mickey out of him for such a "poncey" ambition, but Sean was determined – he even changed the spelling of his name to signal this fresh start as an actor.

The arty actor

Sean has become a global star thanks to big, crowd-pleasing productions like Sharpe, Goldeneye and The Lord of the Rings. But it might surprise some of his fans to know that the ruggedly handsome action man – best known for playing macho heroes and gritty villains – actually started out in very subtle, arty roles.

After all, he first made his name in a stage production of the notoriously highbrow, absurdist play Waiting for Godot. And his first major film role was in Derek Jarman's surreal biopic of the painter Caravaggio (in which Sean played his gay lover). And then there was another Jarman project - War Requiem, a study of World War One with no dialogue at all. All of this helped to create a reputation for Sean in the thesp world, but true fame didn't come until 1993, when he made his appearance as the dashing soldier Richard Sharpe.

The Sharpe end

Sharpe was exported all over the world and made Sean the star he always wanted to be – but he was perhaps too good in the role of the Napoleonic soldier, because he fell foul of the one thing all actors dread: typecasting.

Although he did land roles here and there (in the adaptation of Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero for instance), he had to keep persuading casting agents that there was more to him than Richard Sharpe. "It was so confusing," he later said. "Sharpe had been great, but it led to my being difficult to employ."

Making matters worse, he and his wife Melanie Hill (of Bread and Emmerdale fame) divorced in 1997, the year Sharpe came to an end. Things were looking bumpy – but everything changed in 2001 with The Lord of the Rings, which brought him to a whole new audience and has earned him many further Hollywood roles. The typecasting problem eliminated, he even returned to the role of Sharpe in 2006.

Bean's bother

He may look utterly fearless as Richard Sharpe, but until very recently Sean had one big problem plaguing him: a terrible fear of flying.

It's something he inherited from his father, who hated flying so much that during their summer holidays the Bean family had to travel to the Costa Brava by coach. In the same way, Sean used to make a point of travelling to filming locations across Europe by road (and if he had to take the plane, much drinking had to be done beforehand!).

Then, with Lord of the Rings, Sean knew he had to fight his fear once and for all – as filming in New Zealand required frequent plane and helicopter flights. He forced himself to think rationally about flying, and the Lord of the Rings experience cured him of his phobia. Since then he's even played a pilot in Flightplan - now that's dedication!