You'd never guess you're an actor, Brian.

June 12, 2009 12:39 PM

Brian Blessed presents Have I Got News For You.

In other Blessed news, Brian will apparently be appearing in Kenneth Brannagh's upcoming adaptation of Marvel's Thor. Loki? All valkyries! DIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Bonus Blessed: Brian commentates the snooker.

posted by permafrost (42 comments total)

Man, I love Brian Blessed.
posted by khaibit at 12:49 PM on June 12 [3 favorites has favorites]

Blessed is also a black belt who's climbed Everest three times, although he's never summitted. He's the oldest man ever to hike to the magnetic north pole. Bad. Ass.
posted by EarBucket at 12:53 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's a Blessed event!
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:57 PM on June 12

THIS! IS! WONDERFUL!!!!
posted by boo_radley at 12:59 PM on June 12

Mine heart dost leap in adulation at such happy news! Yea, verily!

Note: I fully expect to annoy the living Hell out of everyone around me by talking like Thor for a full month before and after seeing the movie. Which is still significantly less obnoxious than that week I decided to talk like Bizarro.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:09 PM on June 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

What a tremendous talent! Steal anything of mine you want, but make a move on my "I, Claudius" CD set and you're a memory.
posted by RavinDave at 1:12 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Quinctilius Varus, where are my eagles!!!
posted by RavinDave at 1:13 PM on June 12 [4 favorites has favorites]

I think I've only ever seen Brian Blessed in one movie, but lord, how I love that movie.

"Onward, my brave hawkmen! Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!"
posted by GeekAnimator at 1:13 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm not going to say I watch Flash Gordon every Boxing Day afternoon... but it doesn't seem a proper Christmas holiday without it...

Gordon's Alive??!!!???

Voltan Impersonation Competition...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:16 PM on June 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

FRESH HORSES!

Ah GeekAnimator, awesome. "Who wants to live forever?"

Brian Blessed is one of those people who you subtly suspect is actually some kind of demigod, slumming around Earth. He's just got way more than his fair share of personality.
posted by JHarris at 1:16 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

He was also the voice (and model, I suppose) for Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace. You might have seen that, if only to have the opportunity to despise it with a clean conscience.
posted by Grangousier at 1:17 PM on June 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

SHOUTING!
posted by Artw at 1:17 PM on June 12

Everest? the man has climbed Olympus Mons!
posted by Artw at 1:20 PM on June 12

This show is crazy -- ask a black guy.
posted by boo_radley at 1:23 PM on June 12

It's actually easy to forget he's a really good actor... I Claudius of course and he totally steals the episodes of Blakes 7 and Survivors he guested in.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:24 PM on June 12

What in the hay is kicking youtube right now?
posted by boo_radley at 1:32 PM on June 12

What in the hay is kicking youtube right now?

It can't stand up to total Blessedtude....
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:34 PM on June 12

T H A N K S

F L A S H !

(whoooosh)
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:40 PM on June 12

He was also brilliant as Exeter in Branaugh's Henry V. Not a tear-up-the-scenery kind of role, but he conveyed so much, not just about his character, but about the king and how he worked.

Yes, he's the man. I'd watch him read the phone book.

Oh and...

LET THIS BE KNOWN FOREVER...AS FLASH GORDON'S DAY!
posted by PlusDistance at 1:43 PM on June 12

Blessed Sings!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:46 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

> He was also brilliant as Exeter in Branaugh's Henry V.

Oh, hells yes. It's quietly spoken, especially for him, but he insults the Dauphin wonderfully:

DAUPHIN

For the Dauphin,
I stand here for him: what to him from England?

EXETER

Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
And any thing that may not misbecome
The mighty sender doth he prize you at.

posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:54 PM on June 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

I've always enjoyed Brian Blessed's work, but this post has really inceased by admiration for him as a performer and a person exponentially. In the "Blessed Sings" link link that fearfulsymmetry posted, we learn that he's a great singer, a rescuer of animals, and a delightfully silly man.

Odin in Thor? Yeah, I'm there for that.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:03 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is awesome. I've had a mancrush on him since Black Adder.
Nobody can deliver a 'WHAT?!?' like him.
posted by Busithoth at 2:03 PM on June 12 [3 favorites has favorites]

I remember some sort of contest in the Guardian a few years ago, where readers were supposed to imagine the most wildly inappropriate film casting.
Somebody came up with 'Brian Blessed in: The Horse Whisperer'.
It still gives me a chuckle.
posted by Flashman at 2:19 PM on June 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

Parasite Unseen: if you're going to use archaic verb forms, do it correctly.

Second person singular generally takes -st endings.

Third person plural generally takes -eth endings.

Hence, "Mine heart doth leap in adulation at such happy news! "
posted by Araucaria at 2:37 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Third person singular and plural, actually.
posted by Araucaria at 2:39 PM on June 12

Now try combining that with LOLcat ....
posted by Araucaria at 2:41 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

He's also Maya's father.

****space:1999 reference***
posted by wittgenstein at 3:07 PM on June 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

I doth hath cheezburger
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:07 PM on June 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

I liked him in Z Cars
posted by A189Nut at 3:11 PM on June 12

No love for Blackadder?
posted by cerulgalactus at 3:42 PM on June 12

Brian Blessed and Patrick Stewart grew up together in Yorkshire, and have been friends since they were wee--Stewart tries (and fails) every time to keep Brian from his next Everest climb.

Jo Brand told a story on QI that Blessed had related to her about one of his climbs up Everest. I'm trying desperately to find a clip of it on YouTube and having no luck. I don't want to give it away, but let's say that Blessed had a potty emergency that went horribly, horribly wrong.

If I can find the clip, I'll come back and link it.

(On preview - MUCH love for Blackadder, cerulgalactus!)
posted by tzikeh at 4:13 PM on June 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

For a good laugh, pick out the bits involving Blessed in Branagh's autobiography wherein Blessed gives his own critical explanation of what Gertrude is in strong need of. (I would quote, but I do not have the book at hand, alas.)
posted by IndigoJones at 4:22 PM on June 12

He was also brilliant as Exeter in Branaugh's Henry V.

I should have tried to track down a clip of him as the ghost in Hamlet. He actually manages to whisper loudly.
posted by permafrost at 4:32 PM on June 12

tzikeh- he has more than one such anecdote? Check OP's fourth link, go to ca. 5:25. If he can top that, well-
posted by IndigoJones at 4:35 PM on June 12

Augustus Caesar, in the BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, is probably the only role that's on an adequate scale for him.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:44 PM on June 12

I love Brian Blessed. He's amazing in everything.

It still gives me chills watching him die in I, Claudius. You can see the exact moment the light goes out of his eyes, and he stays there motionless while Livia talks and talks and talks, and it's not a pause-still.

Also, the first season of Black Adder, which I love although plenty of people dislike it. "Chiswick? Fresh horses!" "I like not this news! BRING ME SOME OTHER NEWS!"
posted by andraste at 7:13 PM on June 12

Casting Brian Blessed as Odin is brilliant. Now I'm looking forward to the film.
posted by homunculus at 7:54 PM on June 12

IndigoJones - in fact, he does have another one - it's him this time that takes the shit, and it ends up IN HIS PARKA HOOD.
posted by tzikeh at 8:01 PM on June 12

♥
Also, no Dr Who love?
posted by crataegus at 8:18 PM on June 12

tzikeh - and still he went back for more.

Presumably because it was there.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:11 PM on June 13

I'd vaguely heard of him before clicking on the first link, and now will likely seek him out.
posted by not_on_display at 8:46 AM on June 15