Age: 89
male
Brian Blessed OBE (born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in Z-Cars; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of I, Claudius; King Richard IV in the first series of Blackadder; Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon; Bustopher Jones and Old Deuteronomy in the 1981 original London production of Cats at the New London Theatre; Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, in Henry V; Boss Nass in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace; and the voice of Clayton and the Tarzan yell in Disney's Tarzan. In 2016, Blessed was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the arts and charity. Blessed was born on 9 October 1936 at Montagu Hospital in Mexborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of William Blessed, a socialist coal miner at Hickleton Main Colliery (and himself the son of a coal miner) and cricketer for the Yorkshire second team, and Hilda (née Wall). He had a brother Alan, seven years younger, and the pair "went everywhere together" when they were growing up. Alan Blessed died from leukaemia aged 52; their mother died aged 87, and their father died aged 99. Blessed's great-great-grandfather, Jabez Blessed, was the father of 13 children and worked as a china and glass dealer in Brigg, Lincolnshire; many of Blessed's relatives hail from Brigg. Blessed went to Bolton on Dearne Secondary Modern School, and completed his national service in the RAF, in Bicester, before enrolling at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 1956.
Brian Blessed
Commissioner Gordon
for Commissioner Gordon in Batman & Superman: World's Finest Trilogy
Suggested by noahpopejoy
In a trilogy of movies, we see the big lead up to Batman and Superman's first time meeting. In Batman's film, he's well into his years of fighting crime and more specifically, the Joker. During Joker's latest plan, Batman feels he needs help, so he calls in his old sidekick, Dick Grayson, and Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara Gordon, to help him fight the evil clown. In Superman's film, he finds himself battling Lex Luthor and trying to prove that he is selling weapons to terrorists. All the while learning about Batman and what he's like. These movies culminate in World's Finest when Bruce Wayne goes to Gotham City for a press tour for his latest book, "Orphaned Billionaire: How I Coped With Loss." The Joker follows closely behind him, intent on teaming up with Lex Luthor to defeat both Batman and Superman. With their alliance made, Batman and Superman, despite their strong disliking of each other, must team up to stop the mad clown and corrupt businessman. The end of the final movie in the trilogy foreshadows a future Justice League movie with Brainiac as the main villain.
