
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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