Brian Blessed (or, in the tradition of English poetry, Blessèd; pronounced /ˈblɛsɛd/) (born 9 October 1937 in Mexborough, near Doncaster) is an English actor, who came to fame as PC 'Fancy' Smith in the BBC TV police drama series Z Cars. He is a highly charismatic man with a booming voice, great beard and robust build ideal for the bushy-bearded, often humorous men in Shakespearean and medieval dramas. Particularly in the United States, he is known for his role as Caesar Augustus in the 1976 TV-series I, Claudius, a BBC mini-series shown on American public television. The son of a miner, Blessed was born in Mexborough He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has written about his early life in his autobiography Dynamite Kid (1992). Blessed now lives in Surrey. He is married to the actress Hildegarde Neil and has a daughter. He provided the vocal links on the Sony Award-winning Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio and introduces adverts for Orange mobile phones. At Christmas 2006 he presented a Cinderella-style play for Virgin Radio starring actors such as David Tennant and Thandie Newton. In November 2006 Blessed made a surprise appearance on the midday talk show Loose Women. Blessed is generally recognised as a Shakespearean actor, as well as an immensely entertaining and often parodied comic figure, mainly because of his instantly recognisable voice. He has appeared in four of the five Shakespeare films directed by Kenneth Branagh: as The Duke of Exeter in Henry V, Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing, The Ghost of Hamlet's Father in Hamlet and the dual role of Duke Frederick and Duke Senior in As You Like It. He also appeared as the Mad King Richard IV in the first series of Blackadder in a parody of the stereotypical Shakespearean Nobleman. Other roles have emphasized his comedic abilities, notably Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon (1980) and Spiro in the BBC adaptation of My Family and Other Animals (1987) [1]. He also played the role of General Yevlenko in the 1988 miniseries War and Remembrance. He played a brief role in the Warhammer 40,000 game Fire Warrior. Demonstrating his versatility, Blessed has also starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats as both Old Deuteronomy and Bustopher Jones during the original London production. In 2002, under the direction of Royal Shakespeare Company director, Adrian Noble, Blessed originated the role of Baron Bombhurst for the stage musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , for which he received tremendous acclaim. Blessed is also an adventurer. On three occasions, he has tried to climb Mount Everest (though he never reached the summit), and climbed higher than any other man of his age (56 years at the time; his height record was broken by Yuichiro Miura, aged 70, in 2003) during one attempt in 1993. He was on the mountain on May 10, 1996, when 8 climbers were killed in a sudden late-afternoon blizzard, though Blessed was safe at his base camp that day. He has successfully climbed Aconcagua in Argentina as well as Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. In 2004, he sang on Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Luciano Pavarotti. Blessed is also known for his footballing (soccer) knowledge and appeared as an expert on the British satellite station UKTV G2 during the 2006 World Cup. He also appeared on A Question of Sport in 2006. He is a Newcastle United fan. Currently, Blessed is starring in Peter Pan as Captain Hook at the Grove theatre in Dunstable
Selected filmography
- 1966 - The Three Musketeers - Porthos
- 1967 - The Avengers - Mark Dayton
- 1968 - The Avengers - Sergeant Hearn
- 1968 - Cold Comfort Farm - Reuben Starkadder
- 1969 - Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
- 1972 - Arthur of the Britons - Mark of Cornwall
- 1976 - Jaws - Man on beach reading newspaper
- 1976 - Space: 1999 - Dr. Cabot Rowland, and Mentor (Maya's father) (his wife Hildegard Neil appeared in a third episode of this series)
- 1976 - I, Claudius - Augustus
- 1977 - Survivors - Brod in the episode Law of the Jungle
- 1978 - Blake's 7 - Vargas in the episode Cygnus Alpha
- 1980 - Flash Gordon - Prince Vultan
- 1980 - The Joy of Bach (TV) - J.S. Bach/Himself
- 1983 - The Black Adder - Richard IV
- 1983 - High Road to China - Suleiman Khan
- 1986 - Doctor Who - King Yrcanos in the serial The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp
- 1986 - Return to Treasure Island - Long John Silver
- 1987 - My Family and Other Animals (TV) - Spiro
- 1989 - Henry V - Exeter
- 1991 - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - Lord Locksley
- 1991 - Galahad of Everest - George Mallory
- 1993 - Much Ado About Nothing - Signor Antonio
- 1994 - MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis - Atticus
- 1996 - Hamlet - Ghost
- 1999 - King Lear - King Lear
- 1999 - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Boss Nass, leader of the Gungans (voice)
- 1999 - Tarzan - Clayton (voice)
- 1999 - The Big Knights (animated Children's BBC TV series) - Sir Morris (voice)
- 2002 - Kingdom Hearts "Clayton" - (video game) (voice)
- 2004 - Alexander - wrestling trainer
- 2005 - Weebl and Bob flash cartoon - Narrator
- 2006 - Rome Total War: Alexander - Narrator
- 2007 - Back in Business - Trevor Pilkington
- 2007 - Demands of Levitating Heavy Stones Pt1 "Voice of the Prism" - ("song by Transept") (voice)
Books
- The Turquoise Mountain: Brian Blessed on Everest (1991)
- Dynamite Kid (1992)
- Nothing's Impossible (1994)
- To the Top of the World (1995)
- Quest for the Lost World (1999)
External links
- Brian Blessed at the Internet Movie Database
- Biography on agent's website
