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
Sixth Doctor (1985-87
for Sixth Doctor (1985-87 in Doctor Who: The JNT Years
Suggested by zacharyoxford
At the end of Season 17, both Graham Williams and Douglas Adams announced their intentions to step down from Doctor Who. Whilst Adams was replaced fairly quickly by Christopher H. Bidmead, who had been suggested for the position by former writer Robert Banks Stewart, Williams' replacement was less certain. Initially, production unit manager George Gallaccio had been asked, but he declined. However, with nobody else wanting to take up the role, Gallaccio relented on his former decision. Gallaccio's intentions were to combine the wit of the Williams era with the darkness of the Hinchcliffe era to try and strike a perfect balance. This was combined with Bidmead's intentions to try and bring the show back to basics and make it more scientifically minded, with the two striking a somewhat uneasy agreement to allow some more fantasy-esque stories to balance out the scientific ones. This season was the last Tom Baker as the Doctor, Lalla Ward as Romana II and David Brierley as K-9, this was also the first season for Lesley Dunlop as Andria, a stranded pilot from the far future, who would be introduced in the first episode.
