Brian Blessed

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Brian Blessed (pronounced /ˈblɛsɛd/, or in the tradition of English poetry, Blessèd, born October 9, 1937) 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 who often plays powerful, bushy bearded men in Shakespearean and medieval dramas. The son of a miner, he was born in the ex-mining town of Mexborough and grew up in the nearby town of Goldthorpe South Yorkshire. He trained at the world famous Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

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", but this assessment disregards his greater skills, which have earned him a reputation as a great British actor and cult figure. Offstage he is said to be quite shy, but also a dazzling and energetic raconteur. He currently provides the vocal links on the Sony Award-winning Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio and introduces adverts for Orange mobile phones.

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 Blessed was safe at his base camp that day. He has successfully climbed Aconcagua in Argentina as well as Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Blessed currently lives in Surrey. He is married to the actress Hildegard Neil and has a daughter, Rosalind Blessed, who is also an actress.

Blessed is generally regarded as a Shakespearean actor (he is surprisingly subtle and quiet in Shakespearean roles), as well as an immensely entertaining and often satirised comic figure, mainly because of his instantly recognisable voice. His role in Blackadder was a parody of the "typical" Shakespearean actor rather than reflecting the qualities of Blessed's own Shakespearean skills.

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 known for his footballing (soccer) knowledge and appeared as a pundit on the British satellite station UKTV G2 during the 2006 World Cup.

In November 2006 Blessed made a surprise appearance on the ladies midday talk show Loose Women.