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Brian Blessed
Known for: ActingBrian 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.
Filmography 44
Peppa Pig
Tarzan
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Flash Gordon
The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Wizards vs Aliens
Much Ado About Nothing
Best & Bester
as Shouty Shirt (Voice)
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
Henry V
Hamlet
The Last Days of Pompeii
as Olinthus
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island
as Long John Silver
As You Like It
Take Me Out
High Road to China
Robin Hood: The Rebellion
Day of Wrath
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
as Boss Nass (voice)
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
as El Supremo (voice)
Man of La Mancha
Time Travel Is Dangerous!
David Macaulay: Pyramid
The Last Valley
as Korski
Shed of the Dead
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Trojan Women
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
Life After Flash
Back in the USSR
Kidnapped
Agent Crush
The Dark Side of Everest
Prisoner of Honor
Till Death Us Do Part
King Arthur, the Young Warlord
Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth!
David Macaulay: Roman City
The Mumbo Jumbo
Devil's Harvest