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Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed is a British actor whose expansive voice, imposing presence and appetite for larger-than-life characters have made him equally at home in science fiction, Shakespeare and broad comedy. Born in Mexborough, West Yorkshire, on 9 October 1936, he left school after a mining accident involving his father placed pressure on the family. Work as an undertaker’s assistant and plasterer followed, as did national service in the RAF Regiment, before he won a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 1956. One of Blessed’s earliest major television roles was PC “Fancy” Smith in Z-Cars, which he played from 1962 to 1965. His subsequent television work ranged from Porthos in The Three Musketeers and Caesar Augustus in I, Claudius to appearances in The Avengers, Space: 1999 and Blake’s 7. He later entered the Doctor Who universe as the exuberant King Yrcanos in Mindwarp, having previously turned down the opportunity to succeed William Hartnell as the Doctor because of conflicting projects. Blessed’s gift for playing authority with a gleam of mischief found memorable outlets in Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon and Richard IV in the first series of The Black Adder. His classical work has been just as substantial. He appeared in four Shakespeare films directed by Kenneth Branagh: Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and As You Like It. On the West End stage, he originated the roles of Old Deuteronomy and Bustopher Jones in Cats and later played Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. His voice work stretches across animation, film, radio and games. He supplied the voice and live-action reference for Boss Nass in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, voiced Clayton in Disney’s Tarzan, and has played Grampy Rabbit in Peppa Pig. Beyond acting, Blessed’s pursuits have included writing, presenting, directing and mountaineering, alongside 800 hours of space training at Star City in Russia. It is a career defined less by one lane than by the energy with which he has charged through many of them.