Brian Blessed
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Brian Blessed (born October 9, 1936) is a respected English actor. He is a large, charismatic man with a booming voice who often plays powerful men in Shakespearian and medieval dramas. He was born and grew up in Goldthorpe, the son of a South Yorkshire miner. He has been criticised for what his critics see as his use of shouting as an all-purpose characterization technique and was described by one magazine as "the loudest man alive". Off-stage, however, he is said to be quite shy.
Blessed is also an adventurer. On three occasions, he has tried to climb Mount Everest (though he never reached the summit), and climbed higher than any other man of his age (56 years at the time; his height record was broken by Yuichiro Miura, aged 70, in 2003) during one attempt in 1993. He was on the mountain on May 10, 1996, when 12 climbers were killed in a sudden late-afternoon blizzard, though he himself was at base camp that day, escaping injury or death. He has successfully climbed Aconcagua in Chile as well as Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Blessed currently lives in Surrey. He is married to Hildegarde Neil and has a daughter, Rosalind.
Selected roles
- 1972 - Arthur of the Britons - Mark of Cornwall
- 1976 - I, Claudius - Caesar Augustus
- 1980 - Flash Gordon - Prince Vultan
- 1983 - Blackadder - Richard IV
- 1986 - Doctor Who - King Yrcanos in the serial The Trial of a Time Lord:Mindwarp.
- 1989 - Henry V - Exeter
- 1991 - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - Lord Locksley
- 1991 - Galahad of Everest - George Mallory
- 1993 - Much Ado About Nothing - Signor Antonio
- 1999 - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Boss Nass, leader of the Gungans (voice)
- 1999 - Tarzan - Clayton (voice)
- 2004 - Alexander - Leonidas
- 2005 - Weebl and Bob - Documentary - Narrator
External links
- Biography (http://aimagents.com/actors/brbl.htm) on agent's website
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