Brian Blessed
Acting
🎂 1936-10-09
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.
Cast credits(169)
Prince Vultan (voice)
1999
Santa Claus (voice)
2011
Grampy Rabbit (voice)
2004
King Yrcanos
1963
Sergeant Hearn
1961
Mark Dayton
1961
Freddie Dyer
1979
Self
2003
Self - Host
1990
Detective Sergeant Jack Nolan
1979
Sgt. Kite
1965
Self - Presenter
1983
Self
2007
King Richard IV
1983
Self - Participant
2011
Frank Kemble
1975
Mentor
1975
Cabot Rowland
1975
Clayton (voice)
1999
Sir Jack Kleghorn (voice)
2020
Self – Actor
2022
Boss Nass (voice)
1999
PC Smith
1962
PC Fancy Smith
1962
PC William "Fancy" Smith
1962
Self
2004
Hubert Innes
1968
Self
2002
Det Sgt George Briggs
1973
Lord Locksley
1991
Self
1991
Wrestling Trainer
2004
Peter
1964
Self
1995
Santa Claus (voice)
2015
Announcer (voice)
2010
Rev. William Pratt
1965
Self
1993
Tiger Lawson
1971
Self
2017
2004
Harry Catapodis
1986
Vargas
1978
1976
Augustus
1976
Friar Tuck
2018
Prince Vultan
1980
Voice of Rossini
1992
Charlemagne (voice)
2021
Arthur Seymour (voice) (uncredited)
1976
1998
Lord Francisco del Ruiz
2006
Narrator
2004
Self - Panellist
2021
Self
2002
The Pirate King (voice)
2012
Wild Boar (voice)
2004
Ghost of Hamlet's Father
1996
Shouty Shirt (Voice)
2022
Jim Lawsey
1969
Judge Jawbreaker (voice)
2014
Santa Claus
1993
Self
2022
Father Christmas
2011
Atticus
1994
Brod
1975
Exeter
1989
Eddie Barnaby
1965
Antonio
1993
El Supremo (voice)
1992
Self
1982
Geoffrey Lyons
1983
Cabot / Wolstan / Pocock / Colston / Pope Gregory / Dr. Beddoes
1971
Mr. Bojagi
2010
Pedro
1972
Space Lord
2020
1966
Self
2012
1995
Narrator
2020
Narrator
1989
Self - Narrator
2007
Talthybius
1971
Mark of Cornwall
1975
Suleman Khan
1983
Captain (voice)
1996
Squire Western
1997
Suffolk
1972
Narrator (voice)
2019
Edward I
1996
King Yrcanos
1986
Narrator (voice)
1977
Olinthus
1984
Narrator
2011
Captain Teach
1951
Master Guillaume (voice)
1986
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomin
2007
Jack Baird
1970
Will
1970
Korski
1971
Chatillon
1992
Grampy Rabbit (voice)
2024
Trevor Pilkington
2007
Self
2014
Captain Teach
1984
Mr. Scottley
1999
The Voice (voice)
2014
Boris Goudphater (voice)
2008
Reg Sugden
1969
Det Sgt George Briggs
1975
Chazov
1992
Sir Gregory
2006
2008
Cluny MacPherson
1995
Edward the Confessor
1997
1972
Father Gabriel Norton
2003
Self
1996
Boss Nass (voice)
2012
Duke Senior/Duke Frederick
2006
Gen. Gonse
1991
Grampy Rabbit (voice)
2015
Self
2003
Sergeant
1969
Old Deuteronomy
1998
Maj. Elliot
1994
Bestuzhev
1996
Narrator
2022
Peter
1969
The Pirate King
2012
King Lear
1999
Self
2017
Ankhaf (voice)
1989
2000
Lucifer Bounder
2000
Voice
1983
Sam
1990
Mark of Cornwall
1972
Mentor
1982
Mr. Carksdale
1992
Self
1998
Grampy Rabbit (voice)
2024
Dr. Tom Bowen
1975
Self
2014
Self
2008
The Nekross King (voice)
2012
George Mallory/Self
1991
Gaius Valerius (voice)
1994
2008
Self
2022
William Woodcock
1974
Basileos
1979
1974
Porthos
1966
2001
Spiro
1987
Long John Silver
1986
William Stickers
1995
Reuben Starkadder
1968
Sir Edward Fawcett
2003
Porthos
1967
Dr. Tom Bowen
1975
1988
2008
Himself - Presenter
2007
Peppone
1981
Self
2007
GTV Announcer
2010