British actor, born on October 9, 1937 in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. He's a hefty, bearded guy with a gigantic booming voice and a lethal smile, and it's no fair at all that he's in so few movies.

He first gained fame back in the early 1960s, when he was a cast member on "Z Cars," a long-running police drama in England. Much later, he turned in a bravura performance as Caesar Augustus in "I, Claudius," which is still one of his best-known roles. He played Porthos in a ten-part BBC adaptation of "The Three Musketeers" in 1967, and he played both Old Deuteronomy and Bustopher Jones in the original West End production of "Cats." He's performed in numerous Shakespeare plays, both on stage and in movies. He also appeared in "The Trojan Women," "Man of La Mancha," and "Blackadder." More recently, he was in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," the 1993 version of "Much Ado about Nothing," and the 1996 version of "Hamlet" -- he also played Boss Nass in "Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace," had the lead role in the 1999 version of "King Lear," and did voice work in "Gladiator," the Disney "Tarzan" cartoon, and a BBC cartoon called "The Big Knights."

I first became aware of Blessed when he played Exeter in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 version of "Henry V," but judging by how many people I've heard bellow "Gordon's ALIVE?!?" at one time or another, most folks know him from the goofy "Flash Gordon" movie, where he played Prince Vultan. He's my favorite kind of character actor -- the one who steals the whole movie away from the lead actors.

He's hosted a few times on the BBC news/comedy program "Have I Got News for You" and has generally been astonishingly, brain-breakingly funny. It's worth your while to dig up his appearances on the show on YouTube, if you can find them. 

Blessed has tried to climb Mount Everest three times. One of them was being filmed, back in 1996, during a climbing season when way, way too many inexperienced climbers died trying to get up Everest.

In real life, he's considered a very quiet, mild-mannered man who practices meditation and vegetarianism and has a passion for caring for abused animals. 

Favorite amazing trivia: In 1966, Blessed was offered the part of the Doctor in "Doctor Who" after William Hartnell retired, but he turned it down due to conflicts with other projects. Blessed as the Doctor would've out-hammed even Tom Baker

Update: avalyn sez: "'nother cool bit about this chap: He's also climbed (successfully) Aconcagua in the Andes, and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. There was a film made of one of his Everest expeditions called "Galahad of Everest."

Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and from hollywood.com

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