Brian Blessed Movies and Career Information

Brian Blessed (pronounced /ˈblɛsɪd/), born 9 October 1936, is an English actor, author and adventurer. He is known for his loud, booming voice and "hearty, king-sized portrayals". The son of William Blessed, a socialist miner, and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born in the town of Goldthorpe near Mexborough in Yorkshire, England. He attended Bolton on Dearne Secondary Modern School, but was forced to leave school early and spent several years working at a variety of jobs, ranging from undertaker to plasterer's assistant to time in the RAF. He began his training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has written about his early life in his autobiography, Dynamite Kid (1992). An early role was that of PC 'Fancy' Smith in the BBC police drama Z Cars from 1962 to 1965. In 1966, Blessed appeared in "Incident at Vichy" at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Blessed had small roles in such cult shows as The Avengers (1967, 1969) and the original Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969). He portrayed Caesar Augustus in the BBC series I, Claudius, for which performance he won the New York Critics Award. He portrayed the father of Robin Hood, Lord Locksley, in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of