Brian Blessed
Biography
Brian Blessed OBE (born 9 October 1936)is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in Z-Cars; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of I, Claudius; King Richard IV in the first series of Blackadder; Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon; Bustopher Jones and Old Deuteronomy in the 1981 original London production of Cats at the New London Theatre; Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, in Henry V; Boss Nass in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace; and the voice of Clayton and the Tarzan yell in Disney's Tarzan.
In 2016, Blessed was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the arts and charity.
Blessed was born on 9 October 1936 at Montagu Hospital in Mexborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of William Blessed, a socialist coal miner at Hickleton Main Colliery (and himself the son of a coal miner) and cricketer for the Yorkshire second team, and Hilda (née Wall). He had a brother Alan, seven years younger, and the pair "went everywhere together" when they were growing up. Alan Blessed died from leukaemia aged 52; their mother died aged 87, and their father died aged 99. Blessed's great-great-grandfather, Jabez Blessed, was the father of 13 children and worked as a china and glass dealer in Brigg, Lincolnshire; many of Blessed's relatives hail from Brigg.
Blessed went to Bolton on Dearne Secondary Modern School, and completed his national service in the RAF, in Bicester, before enrolling at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 1956.
Acting (80 movies)
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
2007
Devil's Harvest
2003
Hamlet
1996
Flash Gordon
1980
Henry V
1989
Back in Business
2007
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
1991
Much Ado About Nothing
1993
Into Infinity
1975
A Christmas Carol
1977
The Last Valley
1971
Till Death Us Do Part
1969
Tarzan
1999
The Trojan Women
1971
The Mumbo Jumbo
2000
Cosmic Princess
1982
The Conclave
2007
Catherine the Great
1996
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis
1994
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
1972
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
2012
The Dark Side of Everest
2003
The Queen: 70 Glorious Years
2022
Kidnapped
1995
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
1992
Brotherly Love
1970
The Master of Ballantrae
1984
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
2022
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh
1998
Prisoner of Honor
1991
The Seventeenth Kind
2014
Macbeth
1997
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
2014
High Road to China
1983
Galahad of Everest
1991
Man of La Mancha
1972
The Bruce
1996
Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth!
2022
Day of Wrath
2006
Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
2012
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
1999
Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots
2015
Genius: Pythagoras
1996
The Greatest Store in the World
1999
Tales of Television Centre
2012
The Eagle Has Landed
1976
King Arthur, the Young Warlord
1975
The Christmas Tree
1966
Brian Cox: Space, Time & Videotape
2014
Back in the USSR
1992
Blood and Dust
1992
Alexander
2004
King Lear
1999
Peppa's Cinema Party
2024
Chasing the Deer
1994
The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond
1995
As You Like It
2006
So You Want To Be A Pirate!
2012
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1983
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy
2006
Shed of the Dead
2019
Life After Flash
2017
448 BC: Olympiad of Ancient Hellas
2004
Robin Hood: The Rebellion
2018
David Macaulay: Roman City
1994
David Macaulay: Pyramid
1989
David Macaulay: Castle
1983
David Macaulay: Cathedral
1986
The Legend of the Tamworth Two
2004
The Making of The Trial of a Time Lord
2008
Eugenius!
2020
I, Claudius: A Television Epic
2002
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
2021
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
1986
Dear Mr. Burton
2020
A Midsummer Nightmare
1975
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments
2008
Agent Crush
2008
Peppa Pig: Wedding Party!
2024
Time Travel Is Dangerous!
2025
Directing (1 movie)
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