From Sheffield to Stardom

Source: Sky Sports
FROM SHEFFIELD TO STARDOM - AM
Saturday 3rd March 2007

Picture the scene. It's 1970s Sheffield, and a young Sean Bean is working

in his dad's welding business when he calmly informs his old man that

he is leaving the family trade.

Not to join a rival company or become a professional footballer for his

beloved Sheffield United, no Sir.

Bean junior had contracted the acting bug and he was off to

become a luvvie.

Hardly the traditional route for young men from the Steel City in the

mid 1970s but then Sean had a feeling that there must be more to life.

And Sean told Soccer AM that telling his parents about his new career

move caught them slightly off guard.

"Both me mum and dad were a bit surprised about it," Sean said.

"It wasn't really the kind of thing you did 25 years ago in Sheffield, it

was a steel and coal-mining town and people didn't often say 'I'm going

to be an actor'"

"I was always interested in doing something different, I enjoyed working

with me dad in the welding business, there were a few good men in

there and I was there for about three years.

"We had a good time and a good laugh, I knew I wanted to do something

different but I didn't know what it was.

"I was interested in music and art and I went to a few art colleges but I

didn't last very long: half an hour in one particular case.

"But it was through art that I found this college in Rotherham that ran a

course in acting and I stumbled into that and I tried it and found it very

rewarding and felt at home doing something that I was good at.

Good at it indeed.

Since earning his big break in Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1993, Bean has

starred alongside such luminaries as Harrison Ford, and Robert DeNiro.

Other credits in the Bean back catalogue include Golden-Eye, Troy and the

small matter of Lord of the Rings.

Not bad going for a lad from Sheffield.