Brian Blessed
Acting
- Born:
- 1936-10-09
- Place of birth:
- Mexborough, Yorkshire, England, UK
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.
Known For
Filmography
Dudley & the Invasion of the Space Slugs
Space: 1999 4K Double Bill - Breakaway and The Metamorph
Time Travel Is Dangerous!
Peppa Pig: Wedding Party!
Peppa's Cinema Party
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth!
Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
Best & Bester
The Queen: 70 Glorious Years
Peter O'Toole Réalta & Rógaire
Blankety Blank
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Dear Mr. Burton
Close Enough
Eugenius!
Shed of the Dead
Robin Hood: The Rebellion
Life After Flash
The Russell Howard Hour
Danger Mouse
Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots
Brian Cox: Space, Time & Videotape
The Seventeenth Kind
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
The Kumars
Was It Something I Said?
Wizards vs Aliens
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
So You Want To Be A Pirate!
Tales of Television Centre
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Celebrity Antiques Road Trip
Wojtek: The Bear That Went to War
Sooty
The Amazing World of Gumball
Fee Fi Fo Yum
Mr. Bojagi
In Confidence
Take Me Out
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments
The Making of The Trial of a Time Lord
The Underdog Show
All Star Mr & Mrs
Agent Crush
Saving Planet Earth UK
Would I Lie to You?
Britain's Got More Talent
Back in Business
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
The Conclave
As You Like It
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy
Day of Wrath
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
448 BC: Olympiad of Ancient Hellas
Alexander
Who Do You Think You Are?
The Paul O'Grady Show
Peppa Pig
The Legend of the Tamworth Two
QI
The Royal
Devil's Harvest
The Dark Side of Everest
The Making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
I, Claudius: A Television Epic
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
Fun at the Funeral Parlour
The Mumbo Jumbo
The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything
The Greatest Store in the World
The Big Knights
Tarzan
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Family Guy
King Lear
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh
The Heaven and Earth Show
Fantasy World Cup
The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling
Macbeth
Hamlet
Catherine the Great
The Bruce
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Genius: Pythagoras
Summit Fever
Kidnapped
The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond
Soccer AM
Johnny and the Dead
Chasing the Deer
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis
David Macaulay: Roman City
Sooty & Co.
Lady Chatterley
Much Ado About Nothing
GMTV
Blood and Dust
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
Exam Conditions
Back in the USSR
Old Rococo: The Life of Gioacchino Rossini
Galahad of Everest
Prisoner of Honor
Pebble Mill
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Have I Got News for You
The Castle of Adventure
The Castle of Adventure
Henry V
David Macaulay: Pyramid
The Old Man Of The Mountain
War and Remembrance
A Question of Entertainment
Comic Relief
My Family and Other Animals
Crossbow
The Gnostics
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
David Macaulay: Cathedral
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island
Boon
Lovejoy
Blake's 7: The Beginning
The Last Days of Pompeii
The Master of Ballantrae
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Natural World
Blackadder
High Road to China
David Macaulay: Castle
Cosmic Princess
The Kenny Everett Television Show
The Little World of Don Camillo
Flash Gordon
Minder
Tales of the Unexpected: Lamb to the Slaughter
Tales of the Unexpected
The Aphrodite Inheritance
Blake's 7
A Christmas Carol
The Eagle Has Landed
I, Claudius
Nobody's House
The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity
The Day After Tomorrow
A Midsummer Nightmare
Space: 1999
Survivors
The Sweeney
King Arthur, the Young Warlord
Churchill's People
Notorious Woman
Boy Dominic
European Heritage
Thriller
Man of La Mancha
Arthur of the Britons
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
Shirley's World
The Bristol Entertainment
Justice
The Trojan Women
The Last Valley
Wine of India
Brotherly Love
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
The Double Agent
Son of Man
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
Till Death Us Do Part
The Expert
Cold Comfort Farm
ITV Playhouse
The Further Adventures of the Musketeers
The Christmas Tree
The Three Musketeers
BBC Play of the Month
The Troubleshooters
Public Eye
The Wednesday Play
Doctor Who
Z-Cars
The Avengers
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Have I Got a Bit More News for You