Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed (88)

1936-10-09 | 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.

On Movies

  • Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth!
  • Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
  • Shed of the Dead
  • Robin Hood: The Rebellion
  • The Seventeenth Kind
  • Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
  • So You Want To Be A Pirate!
  • The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
  • Agent Crush
  • The Conclave
  • Back in Business
  • As You Like It
  • Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy
  • Day of Wrath
  • Alexander
  • Devil's Harvest
  • The Mumbo Jumbo
  • The Greatest Store in the World
  • Tarzan
  • Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
  • King Lear
  • Macbeth
  • Hamlet
  • Catherine the Great
  • The Bruce
  • Kidnapped
  • Chasing the Deer
  • MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • Blood and Dust
  • Freddie as F.R.O.7.
  • Exam Conditions
  • Back in the USSR
  • Prisoner of Honor
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
  • Henry V
  • The Old Man Of The Mountain
  • The Master of Ballantrae
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • High Road to China
  • Cosmic Princess
  • Flash Gordon
  • A Christmas Carol
  • The Eagle Has Landed
  • Into Infinity
  • A Midsummer Nightmare
  • King Arthur, the Young Warlord
  • Man of La Mancha
  • Henry VIII and His Six Wives
  • The Trojan Women
  • The Last Valley
  • Wine of India
  • Brotherly Love
  • Son of Man
  • Till Death Us Do Part
  • The Christmas Tree

Movies as Director

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