Celebrities and VIPs at the 2012 London Olympics (20+ Photos)

The 2012 London Olympics has just held its opening ceremony marking the official start of the games. The opening event of the Olympics is one of the major highlights of the games. And for this year, a lot of high ranking individuals as well as celebrities were present.

Of course, the 2012 London Olympics would not be complete without the Royals. Queen Elizabeth II came out to meet the heads of the other nations during the opening. She was at one time escorted by James Bond himself, actor Daniel Craig. Prince William was also there with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge as well as Prince Harry. Prince Charles also came with Camilla, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh as well as Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron.

Actor Rowan Atkinson, famously known for being Mr. Bean also performed at the ceremony. Acclaimed actor/director Kenneth Branagh performed at the opening as well as bestselling Harry Potter J.K. Rowling who read at the event.

Sir Paul McCartney and Ralph Fiennes were there as well. US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney also came to the opening ceremony with his wife. Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States was there to show support to the athletes. The opening was directed by Oscar winning director of Slumdog millionaire, Danny Boyle. Check out the amazing photos taken by acclaimed photographers Kai Pfaffenbach, Phil Noble, David Gray of Reuters, Matt Dunham, Jae C. Hong, Leon Neal, Toby Melville, Dominic Lipinski, Stefan Rousseau of the Associated Free Press, John Stillwell of Getty Images above.

For more on the Olympics, go check out Yahoo! Sports.