Sean Bean: Real Name, Wife, Roles and Current Work

Most actors spend decades hoping for one role that people remember; Sean Bean got three, and audiences still can’t decide whether to hug him or warn him not to stand near any swords. This is a fact-checked guide to the man behind those deaths — his real name, his marriages, what he’s doing now, and the questions search results keep sidestepping.

Real name: Shaun Mark Bean · Born: 17 April 1959 · Nationality: English · Known for: Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, Sharpe · Marriages: 5 (widely reported) · Current wife: Ashley Moore

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts

• Born Shaun Mark Bean on 17 April 1959 in Sheffield (IMDb’s Sean Bean profile).
• An English actor whose work spans stage, radio, television and film (IMDb bio).
• Played Boromir in The Lord of the Rings and Eddard “Ned” Stark in Game of Thrones (Rotten Tomatoes’ Sean Bean page).

2What’s unclear

• The exact marriage count — widely reported as five in Wikipedia’s personal life section — is not officially confirmed in the top sources.
• Ashley Moore’s exact age is not disclosed in the provided sources (IMDb trivia).
• Religion, current residence and the number of grandchildren are not listed in the top profiles (Letterboxd actor page).

3Timeline signal

• 1983: stage debut in Romeo and Juliet at the Watermill Theatre (Wikipedia’s early life section).
• 1993: Sharpe begins with Sharpe’s Rifles and Sharpe’s Eagle (Den of Geek’s Sean Bean TV roles feature).
• 2011: Game of Thrones’ first season airs (Rotten Tomatoes filmography).

4What’s next

• His official Instagram is promoting an upcoming Disney+ project with Arthur Hughes, Anthony Boyle and Sean Bean (official Instagram).
• Recent TV credits include Legends and The Frankenstein Chronicles (Wikipedia filmography).

The pattern: the public record is heavier on work than on private life — which is exactly why the personal questions below keep surfacing.

Ten facts, one pattern: Bean’s career ran on two tracks at once — British television institutions and global blockbusters.

Fact	Detail
Full name	Shaun Mark Bean (IMDb filmography)
Date of birth	17 April 1959 (IMDb (birth date))
Place of birth	Handsworth, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England (IMDb awards)
Training	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London (IMDb training)
Stage debut	Romeo and Juliet, Watermill Theatre, 1983 (Wikipedia career)
Film debut	Caravaggio, 1986 (Wikipedia biography)
Breakthrough British TV role	Richard Sharpe in ITV’s Sharpe, from 1993 (Wikipedia Sharpe)
Hollywood breakthrough	Boromir in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001 (Rotten Tomatoes reviews)
Signature streaming-era role	Eddard “Ned” Stark in Game of Thrones, 2011 (Wikipedia Game of Thrones)
Marriages (reported)	5, most recently to Ashley Moore (IMDb family)

Why did Sean Bean change his name?

The short answer: the record doesn’t show that he did. What happened is a spelling shift, not a legal one.

What is Sean Bean’s real name?

• Birth name: Shaun Mark Bean (IMDb overview).
• Born: 17 April 1959, in Handsworth, Sheffield (IMDb personal).
• Professional spelling: “Sean” — the version used across his career; the top sources describe no legal name change.

Shaun and Sean are pronounced the same way. The birth record uses Shaun; the posters, credits and databases use Sean. For a working actor trying to avoid a lifetime of “Shawn? Shaun? Sean?” at read-throughs, the simpler public spelling is an efficient choice — but “efficient” is a guess, since no source records the moment he picked it.

The pattern: the name shift is professional, not legal, and the sources confirm it.

What is Sean Bean’s real accent?

• He was born and raised in Sheffield, South Yorkshire (IMDb details).
• His natural accent is associated with that Sheffield/Yorkshire background.

That background is the reason his voice reads as Northern, not neutral: a RADA polish over a South Yorkshire foundation, rather than the RADA sound alone.

The implication: the Sean Bean people imitate — the warm, flat Northern English vowels — is real working-class Sheffield, not a put-on character voice.

Has Sean Bean been married five times?

Search his name and the count follows you around: five marriages. It’s the most repeated line in his biography — and the one that most needs a caveat.

How old is Sean Bean’s wife, Ashley?

• Ashley Moore is widely reported as his current wife (IMDb marriages).
• Her exact age is not confirmed in the provided sources.
• Bean’s own age is easy to confirm: born 17 April 1959 (IMDb birth date).

That question looks answerable and isn’t: the database records the marriage, but it doesn’t publish her date of birth.

Why did Melanie Hill and Sean Bean split?

• Bean and Melanie Hill were divorced in 1997, according to widely reported biographical accounts.
• The provided sources do not give the full reason for the split.

This is a gap, not a scandal. Celebrity databases log the marriage and the divorce; they don’t log the explanation.

How many grandchildren does Sean Bean have?

• The number of grandchildren is not disclosed in the provided sources.
• The number of children isn’t itemized there either.

When the answer isn’t in the official profiles, the honest move is to say so instead of guessing.

The catch: the marriage count is widely repeated but not officially documented; this pattern of private gaps continues.

The pattern: Bean’s professional life is exhaustively documented, and his private life is documented just enough to support headlines. That’s why so many personal queries lead nowhere.

What is Sean Bean doing today?

• He remains active in television and film (IMDb active profile).
• His official Instagram is promoting an upcoming Disney+ project with Arthur Hughes, Anthony Boyle and Sean Bean (Instagram Disney post).
• Recent credited TV work includes Legends and The Frankenstein Chronicles (Rotten Tomatoes news).

The Disney+ mention is a first-party signal: it comes from Bean’s own feed, not a studio press release. That makes it the most current item in this profile and the least independently verified part of the record.

Where does Sean Bean currently live?

• Current primary residence: not confirmed in the provided sources.
• Birthplace: Sheffield, South Yorkshire — documented (IMDb birthplace).

The search interest makes sense — people want a town to picture. The top profiles just don’t publish one.

What films and TV shows has Sean Bean appeared in?

• BBC anthology series Accused and the BBC drama Broken (Wikipedia television credits).
• National Treasure and Flightplan in the 2000s (Den of Geek TV roles).
• Stormy Monday (1988), GoldenEye (1995) and Ronin (1998) fill out the 1990s (Wikipedia film credits).

That list skips the headline roles because they deserve their own section. The point here is range: fantasy, thriller, period drama, even a Bond villain. For another British actor who built a career across stage and screen, this profile of Rufus Sewell covers similar ground.

What is Sean Bean’s favorite role?

No authoritative quote in the provided sources answers this. What the record offers instead is a career with enough signature roles that fans can’t agree on one.

What is Sean Bean known for?

• Richard Sharpe in ITV’s Sharpe, from 1993 (Den of Geek Sharpe).
• Boromir in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Rotten Tomatoes Boromir).
• Eddard “Ned” Stark in Game of Thrones, first season 2011 (Rotten Tomatoes Ned Stark).
• Earlier international exposure came with Patriot Games, released in 1992 (Rotten Tomatoes Patriot Games).

Who did Sean Bean play in Game of Thrones?

• Eddard “Ned” Stark — Warden of the North and head of House Stark — in the show’s first season (Rotten Tomatoes Ned Stark).

It’s the role that introduced him to a generation that never watched Sharpe. Ned lasted one season — enough to make the part a career-defining one.

Who did Sean Bean play in The Lord of the Rings?

• Boromir, son of Denethor, in The Fellowship of the Ring and the wider trilogy released across 2001–2003 (Rotten Tomatoes Boromir; Wikipedia LOTR).

This is the role that turned him into a movie star outside Britain; Rotten Tomatoes notes that Boromir brought him broad international recognition.

What is Sean Bean’s role in Odysseus?

• Bean has played Odysseus once already — in Troy, released in 2004 (IMDb Troy).
• A separate “Sean Bean Odysseus” project circulating in search queries is not confirmed in the provided sources.

So the honest answer has two parts: the 2004 Troy role is real, and the speculative new Odysseus project cannot be verified from the record we have.

Is Sean Bean nice in real life?

• The provided sources do not include a direct personal testimony about his off-screen personality.
• What the record shows: a Sheffield-born actor who trained at RADA, appeared in Royal Shakespeare Company productions in the 1980s, and has kept a steady string of leads since (IMDb profile).

“Nice” is a question for people who have met him, and none of the top profiles publishes that kind of interview. The public record can tell you he is professional enough to keep getting cast; it cannot tell you what he is like at dinner. The same gap between public career and private life shows up in this profile of Tobias Menzies.

What this means: anyone who answers with a firm “yes” or “no” is repeating an anecdote, not a documented fact. Treat personality verdicts as gossip until a named interview says otherwise.

What is Sean Bean’s religion?

• Religion: not listed in the top provided sources.
• No named interview in the record addresses it.

It’s a common celebrity query and an easy one to fake. The sourced answer is: not documented.

The implication: if a website assigns Bean a specific faith without a named interview, that’s invention, not reporting.

Sean Bean career timeline

• 1959 — Born Shaun Mark Bean in Sheffield, England (IMDb birth).
• 1983 — Professional stage debut in Romeo and Juliet at the Watermill Theatre (Wikipedia stage debut).
• 1986 — Feature-film debut in Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio (Wikipedia film debut).
• 1988 — Appears in Stormy Monday (Wikipedia Stormy Monday).
• 1992 — Wider international exposure through Patriot Games (Rotten Tomatoes Patriot).
• 1993 — Sharpe begins with Sharpe’s Rifles and Sharpe’s Eagle (Den of Geek Sharpe).
• 1995 — Plays Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye (Wikipedia GoldenEye).
• 1998 — Appears in Ronin (Wikipedia Ronin).
• 2001–2003 — The Lord of the Rings trilogy, with Boromir (Rotten Tomatoes LOTR).
• 2004 — Plays Odysseus in Troy (IMDb Troy).
• 2011 — Game of Thrones first season, as Ned Stark (Rotten Tomatoes GOT).
• 2020s — Active in film and television; his official Instagram promotes a Disney+ project.

The pattern: one signature role per decade, each bigger than the last — theatre in the 1980s, Sharpe in the 1990s, Hollywood in the 2000s, streaming in the 2010s, and a Disney+ slate next.

Separating confirmed facts from what’s unclear

The pattern: the uncertain list is longer than the confirmed list — not because the record is weak, but because celebrity databases log careers, not private lives.

What the sources say

An English actor whose work spans stage, radio, television, and film.

— IMDb’s Sean Bean profile, the industry’s standard credit and biography database

Bean played Boromir in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, a role that brought him broad international recognition.

— Rotten Tomatoes’ Sean Bean page, the review-aggregation site’s celebrity profile

Bean played Richard Sharpe in the television adaptation based on Bernard Cornwell’s novels; the series began with Sharpe’s Rifles and Sharpe’s Eagle in 1993.

— Den of Geek, the film and TV specialist outlet

Why this matters: none of the professional sources calls him an angel or a problem. They describe a durable, working actor — which is a stronger verdict than most celebrity coverage offers.

The takeaway

Sean Bean’s public record is clean in a way celebrity records rarely are: born Shaun Mark Bean in Sheffield in 1959, trained at RADA (IMDb), and kept busy ever since. The gaps — religion, address, favorite role, Ashley’s age — are not secrets waiting to spill; they’re simply not in the published record. For fans who only know Ned Stark and Boromir, the decision is clear: follow Sean Bean’s upcoming Disney+ project, or stay a decade behind a career that never actually paused.

Frequently asked questions

Where was Sean Bean born?

Handsworth, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England (IMDb Sean Bean profile).

How old is Sean Bean?

He was born on 17 April 1959, so he turns 67 on 17 April 2026 (IMDb Sean Bean profile).

What is Sean Bean’s net worth?

The provided sources do not publish a verified net worth figure. Treat any specific number as a guess.

Does Sean Bean have children?

The public record references grandchildren but does not itemize his children; family details stay private.

How tall is Sean Bean?

Reported heights vary across databases; no official figure is confirmed in the provided sources.

What nationality is Sean Bean?

English. He was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in 1959 (IMDb Sean Bean profile).

The rule of thumb: if a personal detail isn’t in a database or a named interview, treat it as unverified.

Related reading

If you’re working through British character actors, two more profiles pair well with this one: Rufus Sewell: Career, Ptosis, and Name Meaning Explained and Tobias Menzies: Career, Awards, and the Private Life.

The pattern: both profiles apply the same rule — verified career first, private life second.