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
Ale
for Ale in What If Doctor Who Wasn't Axed? - Doctor Who: The New Renegade (2021)
Suggested by optimistic_writer
After the somewhat muddled season 1, and with the ViacomCBS report, VCBS had Carter choose between either a "dark show filled with social commentary" or a "nostalgia filled family adventure" with Carter choosing the latter while still holding those somewhat darker themes, but not being as dark. The season was intended to be 10 episodes, but due to COVID-19, was shortened to 8. To get a bigger draw for the season, Jane Espenson had the draw be the returning villains, the Vex. Due to being delayed for so long, there was a lot more advertising, as well as showcasing Paramount's new streaming service with this being one of the flagship shows. The New Renegade was only supposed to be two seasons, so when Paramount+ announced there would be a third during filming, Chris Carter would step down from his position as showrunner after the second season.
