Highest rated as cast or director
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.
Acted in 135
2020s
- 2027
Dudley & the Invasion of the Space Slugs
Arthur (voice)
- 2026
Space: 1999 4K Double Bill - Breakaway and The Metamorph
Mentor
- 2025
- 2024
Peppa Pig: Wedding Party!
Grampy Rabbit (voice)
Peppa's Cinema Party
Grampy Rabbit (voice)
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
Eugenius!
Space Lord
2010s
- 2018
Eric and the Barbarian
Odin
- 2015
Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots
Grampy Rabbit (voice)
- 2014
The Seventeenth Kind
The Voice (voice)
- 2012
Wizards vs Aliens
The Nekross King (voice) · 36 episodes
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
Boss Nass (voice)
So You Want To Be A Pirate!
The Pirate King
- 2011
- 2010
Take Me Out
Announcer (voice) · 9 episodes
2000s
- 2008
The Making of The Trial of a Time Lord
Movie
All Star Mr & Mrs
TV
- 2007
Back in Business
Trevor Pilkington
- 2006
The Conclave
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomin
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy
Sir Gregory (voice)
- 2005
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy
Sir Gregory(voice)
- 2004
The Legend of the Tamworth Two
Wild Boar (voice)
- 2003
The Royal
Sir Edward Fawcett · 1 episode
Devil's Harvest
Father Gabriel Norton
- 2000
The Mumbo Jumbo
Lucifer Bounder
The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything
TV
1990s
- 1999
The Greatest Store in the World
Mr. Scottley
The Big Knights
Sir Morris (voice) · 13 episodes
King Lear
King Lear
- 1998
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh
Old Deuteronomy
- 1997
Macbeth
Edward the Confessor
- 1996
Catherine the Great
Bestuzhev
The Bruce
Edward I
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Captain (voice) · 1 episode
- 1995
Kidnapped
Cluny MacPherson
The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond
Movie
Johnny and the Dead
William Stickers · 4 episodes
- 1994
Chasing the Deer
Maj. Elliot
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis
Atticus
David Macaulay: Roman City
Gaius Valerius (voice)
- 1993
- 1992
Blood and Dust
Chatillon
Old Rococo: The Life of Gioacchino Rossini
Voice of Rossini
- 1991
Galahad of Everest
George Mallory/Self
Prisoner of Honor
Gen. Gonse
- 1990
The Castle of Adventure
Sam · 8 episodes
1980s
- 1989
David Macaulay: Pyramid
Ankhaf (voice)
- 1988
Comic Relief
TV
- 1987
My Family and Other Animals
Spiro · 10 episodes
The Gnostics
Guilhabert De Castres · 4 episodes
- 1986
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
King Yrcanos
- 1985
Blake's 7: The Beginning
Vargas
- 1984
The Last Days of Pompeii
Olinthus · 3 episodes
The Master of Ballantrae
Captain Teach
- 1983
David Macaulay: Castle
Voice
- 1982
Cosmic Princess
Mentor
- 1980
1970s
- 1979
Tales of the Unexpected: Lamb to the Slaughter
Detective Jack Noonan
The Aphrodite Inheritance
Basileos · 8 episodes
- 1978
- 1976
Nobody's House
Jack Treadful · 1 episode
- 1975
The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity
Dr. Tom Bowen
A Midsummer Nightmare
Det Sgt George Briggs
King Arthur, the Young Warlord
Mark of Cornwall
- 1974
Notorious Woman
Albert Grzymala · 3 episodes
Boy Dominic
William Woodcock · 13 episodes
- 1973
- 1972
Arthur of the Britons
Mark of Cornwall · 2 episodes
Shirley's World
TV
- 1971
The Last Valley
Korski
- 1970
1960s
- 1969
Son of Man
Peter
Till Death Us Do Part
Sergeant
- 1968
Cold Comfort Farm
Reuben Starkadder · 3 episodes
- 1967
The Further Adventures of the Musketeers
Porthos · 16 episodes
- 1966
The Christmas Tree
Movie
- 1965
- 1964
- 1963
- 1962
- 1961
1950s
- 1951
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Captain Teach · 1 episode
Directed 1
1990s
- 1999
King Lear
Director
Appearances33
2020s
- 2022
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
Self
Bug-Eyed Monsters Invade the Earth!
Narrator
The Queen: 70 Glorious Years
Self
- 2021
Peter O'Toole Réalta & Rógaire
Self
- 2020
Dear Mr. Burton
Narrator
2010s
- 2019
- 2017
- 2014
Brian Cox: Space, Time & Videotape
Self
- 2013
Was It Something I Said?
Self - Narrator · 1 episode
- 2012
Tales of Television Centre
Self
- 2011
2000s
- 2008
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments
Self
- 2007
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
Self
- 2004
448 BC: Olympiad of Ancient Hellas
Narrator
- 2003
The Dark Side of Everest
Self
- 2002
The Making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Self - Actor
I, Claudius: A Television Epic
Self
1990s
- 1996
Genius: Pythagoras
Self
Summit Fever
Self
- 1995
- 1993
- 1990
1970s
- 1977
A Christmas Carol
Narrator (voice)
