Acting
Oct 8, 1936
Mexborough, Yorkshire, England, UK
Brian Blessed
Acting
Biography
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.
Feature Films (100)
Boasting an amazing selection of the most watched, most influential and most highly acclaimed programmes ever made, The 50 Greatest Television Dramas presents a long overdue assessment of the rich heritage television drama has to offer. Channel 4 invited over 200 of Britain's top television drama professionals – writers, directors, producers and commissioners – to take part in an exclusive poll to discover what they consider the finest dramas ever produced.
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
It seems innocent enough. Struggling young artist Daniel King is invited by his childhood friend Natasha...
Devil's Harvest
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
Hamlet
A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
Flash Gordon
In 1415, in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France.
Henry V
After decades of domination by America and Russia there is a new competitor in the space race... Great Britain. The British Space Agency has designed an impressive new space buggy that all the big countries want to get their hands on, which provides the perfect opportunity for con men Tom Marks and Lord Spencer to go 'Back in Business'. They decide to sell the buggy to the highest bidding country, but things don't go quite to plan.
Back in Business
Television & Series (97)
Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.
The Sweeney
Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.
Thriller
Soccer AM is a British Saturday-morning football-based comedy/talk show, predominantly based around the Premier League. Originally presented by Jane Hoffen, Gary Stevens and Russ Williams, they lasted just a year before Helen Chamberlain and Tim Lovejoy replaced them, where Lovejoy served for over a decade. He has since been replaced by Andy Goldstein and, more recently, Max Rushden. The show has been aired on Sky Sports 2 each Saturday morning of the football season since 1995 from 7:00am or 9:00am to noon originally and currently between 10:00am and 12:00pm. In early 2009, the 500th episode was broadcast. Although the show is filmed live from 2010 it has been broadcast on a momentary delay due to bad language and/or inappropriate content from certain guests. The show's current sponsor is Procter & Gamble through their Head & Shoulders brand. The show was previously sponsored by Frijj, a brand of milkshake, after Dairy Crest signed a £2 million sponsorship deal. Parts of the show have remained since the beginning, whilst new items have been introduced each season. In that respect, it is almost the same every week, the difference being new football footage and comedy skits. Every week sees a new group of celebrity guests, generally featuring at least one footballer who is free on the Saturday, and a mix of musicians, TV personalities, and other sportsmen.
