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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
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
Best & Bester
as Shouty Shirt (Voice)
Hamlet
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Flash Gordon
The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling
Much Ado About Nothing
Henry V
Wizards vs Aliens
The Last Days of Pompeii
as Olinthus
Agent Crush
As You Like It
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island
as Long John Silver
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
as Boss Nass (voice)
Take Me Out
High Road to China
Robin Hood: The Rebellion
Day of Wrath
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
as El Supremo (voice)
Man of La Mancha
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Time Travel Is Dangerous!
David Macaulay: Pyramid
The Last Valley
as Korski
Shed of the Dead
Kidnapped
The Trojan Women
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
The Mumbo Jumbo
Life After Flash
Back in the USSR
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
Devil's Harvest