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)
The Trojan Women (1971)
as Talthybius
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)
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021)
as Charlemagne (voice)
Flash Gordon (1980)
as Prince Vultan
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
as Arthur Seymour (voice) (uncredited)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
as Antonio
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014)
as Judge Jawbreaker (voice)
Henry V (1989)
as Exeter
Hamlet (1996)
as Ghost of Hamlet's Father
Space: 1999 4K Double Bill - Breakaway and The Metamorph (2026)
as Mentor
As You Like It (2006)
as Duke Senior/Duke Frederick
High Road to China (1983)
as Suleman Khan
Day of Wrath (2006)
as Lord Francisco del Ruiz
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas (2007)
as Self
Man of La Mancha (1972)
as Pedro
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out (2012)
as Boss Nass (voice)
Robin Hood: The Rebellion (2018)
as Friar Tuck
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972)
as Suffolk
Freddie As F.R.O.7. (1992)
as El Supremo (voice)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)
as Geoffrey Lyons
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis (1994)
as Atticus
The Last Valley (1971)
as Korski
Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots (2015)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
Time Travel Is Dangerous! (2025)
as Gavin the Octopus (voice)
Brotherly Love (1970)
as Jack Baird
The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity (1975)
as Dr. Tom Bowen
Peppa's Cinema Party (2024)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
Back in the USSR (1992)
as Chazov
Life After Flash (2017)
as Self
Tales of Television Centre (2012)
as Self
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh (1998)
as Old Deuteronomy
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy (2005)
as King Richard IV (archive footage) (uncredited)
Catherine the Great (1996)
as Bestuzhev
Shed of the Dead (2019)
as Narrator (voice)
Peppa Pig: Wedding Party! (2024)
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
Cosmic Princess (1982)
as Mentor
Blake's 7: The Beginning (1985)
as Vargas
The Bruce (1996)
as Edward I
The Greatest Store in the World (1999)
as Mr. Scottley
Doctor Who: Mindwarp (1986)
as King Yrcanos
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba (2022)
as Self
The Master of Ballantrae (1984)
as Captain Teach
So You Want To Be A Pirate! (2012)
as The Pirate King
I, Claudius: A Television Epic (2002)
as Self
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy (2005)
as Sir Gregory(voice)
David Macaulay: Roman City (1994)
as Gaius Valerius (voice)
Agent Crush (2008)
as Boris Goudphater (voice)
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy (2006)
as Sir Gregory (voice)
The Making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002)
as Self - Actor
Dudley & the Invasion of the Space Slugs (2027)
as Arthur (voice)
Exam Conditions (1992)
as Mr. Carksdale
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments (2008)
as Self
David Macaulay: Pyramid (1989)
as Ankhaf (voice)
The Making of The Trial of a Time Lord (2008)
Actor
The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond (1995)
Actor
Kidnapped (1995)
as Cluny MacPherson
Till Death Us Do Part (1969)
as Sergeant
The Mumbo Jumbo (2000)
as Lucifer Bounder
A Christmas Carol (1977)
as Narrator (voice)
King Arthur, the Young Warlord (1975)
as Mark of Cornwall
The Queen: 70 Glorious Years (2022)
as Self
The Legend of the Tamworth Two (2004)
as Wild Boar (voice)
Tales of the Unexpected: Lamb to the Slaughter (1979)
as Detective Jack Noonan
David Macaulay: Cathedral (1986)
as Master Guillaume (voice)
Blood and Dust (1992)
as Chatillon
448 BC: Olympiad of Ancient Hellas (2004)
as Narrator
Chasing the Deer (1994)
as Maj. Elliot
Prisoner of Honor (1991)
as Gen. Gonse
Summit Fever (1996)
as Self
The Dark Side of Everest (2003)
as Self
The Christmas Tree (1966)
Actor
The Castle of Adventure (1990)
as Sam
Peter O'Toole Réalta & Rógaire (2021)
as Self
The Conclave (2006)
as Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomin
Wine of India (1970)
as Will
The Seventeenth Kind (2014)
as The Voice (voice)
Son of Man (1969)
as Peter
Brian Cox: Space, Time & Videotape (2014)
as Self
Old Rococo: The Life of Gioacchino Rossini (1992)
as Voice of Rossini
Galahad of Everest (1991)
as George Mallory/Self
The Double Agent (1969)
as Reg Sugden
Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth! (2022)
as Narrator
The Old Man Of The Mountain (1989)
as Narrator
Eugenius! (2020)
as Space Lord
A Midsummer Nightmare (1975)
as Det Sgt George Briggs
Wojtek: The Bear That Went to War (2011)
as Narrator
Macbeth (1997)
as Edward the Confessor
Back in Business (2007)
as Trevor Pilkington
David Macaulay: Castle (1983)
as Voice
Devil's Harvest (2003)
as Father Gabriel Norton
Genius: Pythagoras (1996)
as Self
The Bristol Entertainment (1971)
as Cabot / Wolstan / Pocock / Colston / Pope Gregory / Dr. Beddoes
King Lear (1999)
as King Lear
Dear Mr. Burton (2020)
as Narrator
Mr. Bojagi (2010)
as Mr. Bojagi