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)
Alexander (2004)
as Wrestling Trainer
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
as Lord Locksley
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012)
as The Pirate King (voice)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
as Arthur Seymour (voice) (uncredited)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
as Antonio
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021)
as Charlemagne (voice)
Flash Gordon (1980)
as Prince Vultan
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014)
as Judge Jawbreaker (voice)
Dudley & the Invasion of the Space Slugs (2027)
as Arthur (voice)
Hamlet (1996)
as Ghost of Hamlet's Father
Henry V (1989)
as Exeter
The Bruce (1996)
as Edward I
Brotherly Love (1970)
as Jack Baird
The Greatest Store in the World (1999)
as Mr. Scottley
I, Claudius: A Television Epic (2002)
as Self
Peppa's Cinema Party (2024)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy (2005)
as King Richard IV (archive footage) (uncredited)
Blake's 7: The Beginning (1985)
as Vargas
Space: 1999 4K Double Bill - Breakaway and The Metamorph (2026)
as Mentor
High Road to China (1983)
as Suleman Khan
As You Like It (2006)
as Duke Senior/Duke Frederick
Robin Hood: The Rebellion (2018)
as Friar Tuck
Doctor Who: Mindwarp (1986)
as King Yrcanos
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out (2012)
as Boss Nass (voice)
Freddie As F.R.O.7. (1992)
as El Supremo (voice)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)
as Geoffrey Lyons
The Making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002)
as Self - Actor
Time Travel Is Dangerous! (2025)
as Gavin the Octopus (voice)
Day of Wrath (2006)
as Lord Francisco del Ruiz
The Last Valley (1971)
as Korski
Man of La Mancha (1972)
as Pedro
The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity (1975)
as Dr. Tom Bowen
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy (2005)
as Sir Gregory(voice)
The Seventeenth Kind (2014)
as The Voice (voice)
Peter O'Toole Réalta & Rógaire (2021)
as Self
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas (2007)
as Self
David Macaulay: Pyramid (1989)
as Ankhaf (voice)
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis (1994)
as Atticus
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
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972)
as Suffolk
Shed of the Dead (2019)
as Narrator (voice)
Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots (2015)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
Back in the USSR (1992)
as Chazov
David Macaulay: Cathedral (1986)
as Master Guillaume (voice)
Catherine the Great (1996)
as Bestuzhev
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba (2022)
as Self
Life After Flash (2017)
as Self
Tales of Television Centre (2012)
as Self
Peppa Pig: Wedding Party! (2024)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
The Trojan Women (1971)
as Talthybius
Exam Conditions (1992)
as Mr. Carksdale
448 BC: Olympiad of Ancient Hellas (2004)
as Narrator
Wine of India (1970)
as Will
Till Death Us Do Part (1969)
as Sergeant
Kidnapped (1995)
as Cluny MacPherson
The Legend of the Tamworth Two (2004)
as Wild Boar (voice)
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments (2008)
as Self
The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond (1995)
Actor
Cosmic Princess (1982)
as Mentor
The Master of Ballantrae (1984)
as Captain Teach
David Macaulay: Roman City (1994)
as Gaius Valerius (voice)
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy (2006)
as Sir Gregory (voice)
The Queen: 70 Glorious Years (2022)
as Self
Prisoner of Honor (1991)
as Gen. Gonse
A Christmas Carol (1977)
as Narrator (voice)
The Castle of Adventure (1990)
as Sam
The Conclave (2006)
as Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomin
Agent Crush (2008)
as Boris Goudphater (voice)
The Making of The Trial of a Time Lord (2008)
Actor
The Dark Side of Everest (2003)
as Self
Blood and Dust (1992)
as Chatillon
Son of Man (1969)
as Peter
King Arthur, the Young Warlord (1975)
as Mark of Cornwall
Back in Business (2007)
as Trevor Pilkington
Summit Fever (1996)
as Self
The Mumbo Jumbo (2000)
as Lucifer Bounder
Brian Cox: Space, Time & Videotape (2014)
as Self
Macbeth (1997)
as Edward the Confessor
Eugenius! (2020)
as Space Lord
The Christmas Tree (1966)
Actor
Tales of the Unexpected: Lamb to the Slaughter (1979)
as Detective Jack Noonan
Galahad of Everest (1991)
as George Mallory/Self
Devil's Harvest (2003)
as Father Gabriel Norton
Genius: Pythagoras (1996)
as Self
A Midsummer Nightmare (1975)
as Det Sgt George Briggs
The Old Man Of The Mountain (1989)
as Narrator
Wojtek: The Bear That Went to War (2011)
as Narrator
Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth! (2022)
as Narrator
Chasing the Deer (1994)
as Maj. Elliot
David Macaulay: Castle (1983)
as Voice
The Bristol Entertainment (1971)
as Cabot / Wolstan / Pocock / Colston / Pope Gregory / Dr. Beddoes
The Double Agent (1969)
as Reg Sugden
Old Rococo: The Life of Gioacchino Rossini (1992)
as Voice of Rossini
King Lear (1999)
as King Lear
Mr. Bojagi (2010)
as Mr. Bojagi
Dear Mr. Burton (2020)
as Narrator