
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.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
1999 · as Boss Nass (voice)

Tarzan
1999 · as Clayton (voice)

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
1991 · as Lord Locksley

Alexander
2004 · as Wrestling Trainer

Flash Gordon
1980 · as Prince Vultan

Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
2021 · as Charlemagne (voice)

Much Ado About Nothing
1993 · as Antonio

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
2012 · as The Pirate King (voice)

The Eagle Has Landed
1976 · as Arthur Seymour (voice) (uncredited)

Hamlet
1996 · as Ghost of Hamlet's Father

Henry V
1989 · as Exeter

Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
2014 · as Judge Jawbreaker (voice)

Brotherly Love
1970 · as Jack Baird

As You Like It
2006 · as Duke Senior/Duke Frederick

The Bruce
1996 · as Edward I

High Road to China
1983 · as Suleman Khan

Robin Hood: The Rebellion
2018 · as Friar Tuck

Agent Crush
2008 · as Boris Goudphater (voice)