Brian Blessed

In 1962, Brian Blessed’s acting career got the momentum from the BBC television series, ‘Z-Cars’. He played the role of PC ‘Fancy’ Smith in it. In 1966, he rejected the lead role of the doctor in BBC’s sci-fi drama, ‘Doctor Who’. In the same year, he participated in the play, ‘Incident at Vichy,’ screened at the Phoenix Theatre in London.

From 1967-1969, he played small roles in British TV series: ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)’. He accepted a role in BBC’s 10-part adaptation of ‘The Three Musketeers’. He played Porthos in it. In 1974, Blessed essayed the role of William Woodcock in ‘Boy Dominic’, the Yorkshire television series.

He also acted as Caesar Augustus in BBC drama series: ‘I, Claudius’ (1976) and ‘Basileos in The Aphrodite Inheritance’ (1979). In 1978, he hosted the docudrama, ‘The Joy of Bach,’ which was based on the life of German musician Johann Sebastian Bach. He played the title role in a few scenes.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Brian Blessed showed his brilliant comedic skills. His roles, dialogues, exclamations, and voice quality were widely praised. Meanwhile, he continued doing performing on stage. In 1980, he plays the character of Prince Vultan in the movie ‘Flash Gordon,’ which is remembered for his exclamations, “DIVE!” and “Gordon’s alive!” Three years later, he presented his most cherished role of Richard IV in ‘The Black Adder’ (First Series). In 1981, he acted as both Old Deuteronomy and Bustopher Jones in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical production, ‘Cats’.

In 1986, his TV roles included playing Long John Silver in ‘Return to Treasure Island’ and King Yrcanos in ‘Doctor Who’. The next two years were marked by his work as Spiro in the famous BBC TV adaptation ‘My Family and Other Animals,’ and as General Yevlenko in the mini-series, ‘War and Remembrance’. In 1991, he portrayed Robin Hood’s father Lord Loxley in the Hollywood movie, ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’.

Six years later, he played the role of Squire Western in the BBC TV adaptation ‘Tom Jones’, a comic novel by Henry Fielding. From 1989 to 1996, he performed the following roles both on stage and screen: The Duke of Exeter (‘Henry V’), Antonio (‘Much Ado About Nothing’) and the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father (‘Hamlet’). Ten years after ‘Hamlet’, Blessed again portrayed Shakespearean characters, Duke Frederick and Duke Senior, in ‘As You Like It’.

Brian Blessed: Adventure and other works

Brian Blessed holds the world record for being the oldest man to climb a height of 28,500 feet without oxygen supplement. He received honorary degrees from the University of Bradford (2003) and Sheffield Hallam University (2004).

Brian also got Honorary Membership of the Cambridge Union. He received the Spirit of Hammer Award in 2013 at the Metal Hammer magazine’s ‘Golden Gods Awards’.