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.
1999 • TV
2004 • TV
1963 • TV
1961 • TV
1999 • Movie
1999 • Movie
as Clayton (voice)
as Boss Nass (voice)
as Lord Locksley
as Ghost of Hamlet's Father
as Edward I
as The Voice (voice)
as Talthybius
as Will
as Mr. Carksdale
as Mentor
as Prince Vultan
as Old Deuteronomy
as The Pirate King (voice)
as Antonio
as Exeter
as Jack Baird
as Mr. Scottley
as Judge Jawbreaker (voice)
as Bestuzhev
as Cluny MacPherson
Director
as Prince Vultan (voice)
1 episodes
as Grampy Rabbit (voice)
416 episodes
as King Yrcanos
4 episodes
as Sergeant Hearn
1 episodes
as Freddie Dyer
1 episodes
as King Richard IV
6 episodes
as Sgt. Kite
1 episodes
as Detective Sergeant Jack Nolan
1 episodes
as Self
2 episodes
as Self
1 episodes
1 episodes
1 episodes
as Frank Kemble
1 episodes
as Self
1 episodes
as Self
1 episodes
1 episodes
as Det Sgt George Briggs
1 episodes
as PC Smith
1 episodes
as PC Fancy Smith
1 episodes
as Self
1 episodes
