Brian Blessed
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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.
Known for
Credits
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
as Boss Nass (voice)
Tarzan (1999)
as Clayton (voice)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
as Lord Locksley
Alexander (2004)
as Wrestling Trainer
Flash Gordon (1980)
as Prince Vultan
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012)
as The Pirate King (voice)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
as Antonio
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021)
as Charlemagne (voice)
Hamlet (1996)
as Ghost of Hamlet's Father
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
as Arthur Seymour (voice) (uncredited)
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972)
as Suffolk
Henry V (1989)
as Exeter
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014)
as Judge Jawbreaker (voice)
The Trojan Women (1971)
as Talthybius
David Macaulay: Cathedral (1986)
as Master Guillaume (voice)
Robin Hood: The Rebellion (2018)
as Friar Tuck
High Road to China (1983)
as Suleman Khan
The Dark Side of Everest (2003)
as Self
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out (2012)
as Boss Nass (voice)
As You Like It (2006)
as Duke Senior/Duke Frederick
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis (1994)
as Atticus
Day of Wrath (2006)
as Lord Francisco del Ruiz
Life After Flash (2017)
as Self
Catherine the Great (1996)
as Bestuzhev
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas (2007)
as Self
Man of La Mancha (1972)
as Pedro
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)
as Geoffrey Lyons
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy (2005)
as King Richard IV (archive footage) (uncredited)
Agent Crush (2008)
as Boris Goudphater (voice)
The Last Valley (1971)
as Korski
David Macaulay: Pyramid (1989)
as Ankhaf (voice)
The Conclave (2006)
as Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomin
Son of Man (1969)
as Peter
Prisoner of Honor (1991)
as Gen. Gonse
Freddie As F.R.O.7. (1992)
as El Supremo (voice)
Into Infinity (1975)
as Dr. Tom Bowen
The Bruce (1996)
as Edward I
A Christmas Carol (1977)
as Narrator (voice)
So You Want To Be A Pirate! (2012)
as The Pirate King
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh (1998)
as Old Deuteronomy
Shed of the Dead (2019)
as Narrator (voice)
Peppa's Cinema Party (2024)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
Time Travel Is Dangerous! (2025)
as Gavin the Octopus (voice)
David Macaulay: Roman City (1994)
as Gaius Valerius (voice)
The Greatest Store in the World (1999)
as Mr. Scottley
Brotherly Love (1970)
as Jack Baird
The Mumbo Jumbo (2000)
as Lucifer Bounder
The Legend of the Tamworth Two (2004)
as Wild Boar (voice)
Kidnapped (1995)
as Cluny MacPherson
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba (2022)
as Self
The Master of Ballantrae (1984)
as Captain Teach
The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond (1995)
Actor
Tales of Television Centre (2012)
as Self
Peppa Pig: Wedding Party! (2024)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
Till Death Us Do Part (1969)
as Sergeant
Back in the USSR (1992)
as Chazov
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments (2008)
as Self
Doctor Who: Mindwarp (1986)
as King Yrcanos
The Castle of Adventure (1990)
as Sam
Blake's 7: The Beginning (1985)
as Vargas
Cosmic Princess (1982)
as Mentor
The Seventeenth Kind (2014)
as The Voice (voice)
The Making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002)
as Self - Actor
King Lear (1999)
as King Lear
Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth! (2022)
as Narrator
I, Claudius: A Television Epic (2002)
as Self
The Bristol Entertainment (1971)
as Cabot / Wolstan / Pocock / Colston / Pope Gregory / Dr. Beddoes
Mr. Bojagi (2010)
as Mr. Bojagi
Tales of the Unexpected: Lamb to the Slaughter (1979)
as Detective Jack Noonan
Exam Conditions (1992)
as Mr. Carksdale
The Double Agent (1969)
as Reg Sugden
Macbeth (1997)
as Edward the Confessor
448 BC: Olympiad of Ancient Hellas (2004)
as Narrator
Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots (2015)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
David Macaulay: Castle (1983)
as Voice
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy (2006)
as Sir Gregory (voice)
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy (2005)
as Sir Gregory(voice)
Wojtek: The Bear That Went to War (2011)
as Narrator
The Queen: 70 Glorious Years (2022)
as Self
Galahad of Everest (1991)
as George Mallory/Self
Wine of India (1970)
as Will
The Making of The Trial of a Time Lord (2008)
Actor
The Christmas Tree (1966)
Actor
Blood and Dust (1992)
as Chatillon
King Arthur, the Young Warlord (1975)
as Mark of Cornwall
Eugenius! (2020)
as Space Lord
Back in Business (2007)
as Trevor Pilkington
Chasing the Deer (1994)
as Maj. Elliot
A Midsummer Nightmare (1975)
as Det Sgt George Briggs
Brian Cox: Space, Time & Videotape (2014)
as Self
Devil's Harvest (2003)
as Father Gabriel Norton
Genius: Pythagoras (1996)
as Self
Old Rococo: The Life of Gioacchino Rossini (1992)
as Voice of Rossini
The Old Man Of The Mountain (1989)
as Narrator
Dear Mr. Burton (2020)
as Narrator