Factbox: Actor Sean Bean

The highly anticipated, HBO-produced "Game of Thrones" series took a shocking twist when Sean Bean's character Eddard "Ned" Stark was beheaded for treason in just the 12^th episode of the series. Thus ended Bean's short tenure on the, to this point, highly successful series. Following this occurrence, Bean was reportedly stabbed in a bar fight while out with model April Summers (read the details of the incident here). The latest events that have put Bean in the public eye directly are certainly not the only public exposure he's had over the years:

* He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1983.

* His first acting job was portraying Tybalt in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in 1983.

* Between 1986 and 1988, he was an active member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Fair Maid of the West.

* He has been married and divorced four times. He was married to Debra James, his high school sweetheart, from 1981-1990. He then married actress Melanie Hill in 1990, and they remained married until 1997. Actress Abigail Cruttenden was the next marriage, which lasted from 1997 to 2000. Lastly, he married Georgina Sutcliffe in 2006. Due to reported physical abuse, the couple separated and eventually divorced in 2010.

* His most notable, early role was that of Richard Sharpe, the Napoleonic Wars rifleman, in the series aptly named Sharpe. The series went from 1993 to 1997.

* He has consistently been cast as villains in films since his appearance on the Hollywood scene. His first major role was opposite Harrison Ford in Patriot Games,in which Bean played an Irish terrorist. He also played Alec Trevelyan, the main antagonist in the James Bond film Goldeneye.

* His most notable role to date was that of Gondorian soldier Boromir in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Due to Bean's fear of flying and the movies being filmed in mountainous New Zealand, it caused him extra hassle to arrive at filming locations. Other cast members would fly while Bean would go to considerable lengths to avoid the flight.

* Bean has been considered a sex symbol. In 2004, he was voted second Sexiest Man in the U.K., behind, at the time, Lord of the Rings co-star Orlando Bloom. His initial image as a sex symbol came from his role in Sharpe.

* He is a talented pianist. He also is an accomplished gardener, as well as a welder.

* Bean found his way into the realm of video games as well. He appeared in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

* While having high commercial success, Bean has also maintained support for smaller, independent projects, specifically Far North.

* Aside from his film successes, Bean has also been active in other formats. He has done TV work for products in the UK, such O2, Morrisons, and Barnardos. He has also been a spokesman for the SyFy Channel in the United States.

*Despite all of his successes, Bean is yet to win a major award for his acting.

Sources

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/06/sean-bean-stabbed-bar-brawl-game-of-thrones-missing.html

http://www.seanbeanonline.net/bio.php

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/sean-bean/biography/113