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Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed

Actor · b. 1936 · Mexborough, Yorkshire, England, UK

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.

Series24

  • TV7.4

    Family Guy

    1999 · 5.1K votes

  • TV7.9

    Doctor Who

    1963 · 722 votes

  • TV6.5

    Peppa Pig

    2004 · 767 votes

  • TV7.2
  • TV5.8

    GMTV

    1993 · 14 votes

  • TV7.1

    Have I Got News for You

    1990 · 82 votes

  • TV8.5
  • TV7.1

    Minder

    1979 · 30 votes

  • TV5.2

    BBC Play of the Month

    1965 · 8 votes

  • TV7.8

    The Avengers

    1961 · 156 votes

  • TV7.9

    QI

    2003 · 289 votes

  • TV6.7

    Tales of the Unexpected

    1979 · 54 votes

  • TV4.1

    Pebble Mill

    1991 · 5 votes

  • TV7.8

    Would I Lie to You?

    2007 · 133 votes

  • TV7.3

    Z-Cars

    1962 · 7 votes

  • TV5.2

    The Wednesday Play

    1964 · 5 votes

  • TV7.4

    Natural World

    1983 · 31 votes

  • TV7.0

    ITV Playhouse

    1967 · 3 votes

  • TV6.1
  • TV8.1

    The Sweeney

    1975 · 28 votes

  • TV5.1

    The Paul O'Grady Show

    2004 · 12 votes

  • TV2.8
  • TV4.4
  • TV7.0

Movies23

  • Movie6.6
  • Movie7.4

    Tarzan

    1999 · 7.5K votes

  • Movie6.9
  • Movie6.0

    Alexander

    2004 · 3.6K votes

  • Movie6.5
  • Movie6.3

    Flash Gordon

    1980 · 1.1K votes

  • Movie7.6
  • Movie7.0

    Much Ado About Nothing

    1993 · 838 votes

  • Movie6.7

    The Eagle Has Landed

    1976 · 397 votes

  • Movie7.3

    Hamlet

    1996 · 528 votes

  • Movie6.3
  • Movie7.1

    Henry V

    1989 · 421 votes

  • Movie6.2

    The Trojan Women

    1971 · 37 votes

  • Movie5.8

    As You Like It

    2006 · 102 votes

  • Movie6.0

    High Road to China

    1983 · 108 votes

  • Movie5.0
  • Movie6.5
  • Movie5.2

    Freddie As F.R.O.7.

    1992 · 35 votes

  • Movie
  • Movie6.6

    Man of La Mancha

    1972 · 78 votes

  • Movie6.5
  • Movie6.5

    The Last Valley

    1971 · 64 votes

  • Movie4.5

    Day of Wrath

    2006 · 38 votes