Brian Blessed (or, in the tradition of English poetry, Blessèd; pronounced /ˈblɛsɛd/) (born 9 October 1936 in Mexborough, near Doncaster) is an English actor, who came to fame as PC 'Fancy' Smith in the BBC TV police drama series Z Cars. He is a highly charismatic man with a booming voice, great beard and robust build ideal for the bushy-bearded, often humorous men in Shakespearean and medieval dramas. He is also known for his (beardless) role as the Emperor Augustus in the 1976 BBC TV series I, Claudius.

The son of a miner, Blessed was born in Mexborough He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has written about his early life in his autobiography Dynamite Kid (1992). Blessed now lives in Surrey. He is married to the actress Hildegarde Neil and has a daughter.

He provided the vocal links on the Sony Award-winning Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio and introduces adverts for Orange mobile phones. At Christmas 2006 he presented a Cinderella-style play for Virgin Radio starring actors such as David Tennant and Thandie Newton. In November 2006 Blessed made a surprise appearance on the midday talk show Loose Women.

Blessed is generally recognised as a Shakespearean actor, as well as an immensely entertaining and often parodied comic figure, mainly because of his instantly recognisable voice. He has appeared in four of the five Shakespeare films directed by Kenneth Branagh: as The Duke of Exeter in Henry V, Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing, The Ghost of Hamlet's Father in Hamlet and the dual role of Duke Frederick and Duke Senior in As You Like It. He also appeared as the Mad King Richard IV in the first series of Blackadder in a parody of the stereotypical Shakespearean Nobleman. Other roles have emphasized his comedic abilities, notably Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon (1980) and Spiro in the BBC adaptation of My Family and Other Animals (1987) blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5339326.stm. He also played the role of General Yevlenko in the 1988 miniseries _War and Remembrance.

Demonstrating his versatility, Blessed has also starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats as both Old Deuteronomy and Bustopher Jones during the original London production. In 2002, under the direction of Royal Shakespeare Company director, Adrian Noble, Blessed originated the role of Baron Bombhurst for the stage musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , for which he received tremendous acclaim.

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 8 climbers were killed in a sudden late-afternoon blizzard, though Blessed was safe at his base camp that day. He has successfully climbed Aconcagua in Argentina as well as Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. In 2004, he sang on Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Luciano Pavarotti. Blessed is also known for his footballing (soccer) knowledge and appeared as an expert on the British satellite station UKTV G2 during the 2006 World Cup. He also appeared on A Question of Sport in 2006. He is a Newcastle United fan.

Currently, Blessed is starring in Peter Pan as Captain Hook at the Grove theatre in Dunstable

Brian Blessed is the current President of the Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) 2008-2009. TRIC has honoured stars and celebrities each year for three decades and the winners’ roll call reads like a who’s who in the radio and television industry.

He has honorary degrees from the University of Bradford, awarded in July 2003, and Sheffield Hallam University, awarded in 2004.

Boisterous Brit Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and TV. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, Brian was born in 1936 and grew up in the mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire. His father was a miner who wanted a better life for his son; Brian lost three uncles in the pit. At a young age he displayed an acute talent for acting in school productions, but also had a penchant for boxing, a direction that would be short-lived. Working various blue-collar jobs from undertaker's assistant to plasterer, Brian managed to attend the Bristol Old Vic and was off and running. He has lent his musical talents to several productions - from playing Old Deuteronomy in "Cats" to The Baron in the more recent "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". In the 1970s he began appearing more and more on-camera with both classical and contemporary performances. In costumed TV movies he has played Porthos in "Three Musketeers, The" (1966) (mini) and "Further Adventures of the Three Musketeers, The" (1967), Augustus in "I, Claudius" (1976) (mini), and Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1985) and has been a part of various reenactments including Catherine the Great (1995) (TV), Lady Chatterley (1993) (TV), Hound of the Baskervilles, The (1983) (TV) and Kidnapped (1995) (TV). On film he's appeared in robust support in several 'William Shakespeare (I)' adaptations including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996) and Macbeth (1997). He is married to British actress Hildegarde Neil who made an appearance with him in Macbeth (1997). More recently he appeared in Oliver Stone (I)'s epic-scale Alexander (2004) and in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Shakespeare's As You Like It (2006).