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