Awesome Fat Guy of the Week.

 

It's Friday. You know what that means. It means Awesome Fat Guy of the Week. This week I wanted to spotlight an actor. I looked through a number of men that fit the bill but none of them caught my attention. That is until I heard a voice. It was a loud bombastic voice. A voice that could belong to only one man. The Awesome Fat Guy of the Week is none other than Brian Blessed.

Brian Blessed was born on October 9th, 1936 in Mexborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He attended Bolton on Dearne Secondary Modern School until the age of 14. It was then that his father, a miner, suffered an accident. Brian had to work a variety of jobs to help his family. After a few years the stress got to him an he suffered a nervous breakdown. He was able to move past it with the help of his family and friends. Afterwards he completed his National Service as a parachutist in the Royal Air Force. Not long after he started to train as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. One of the other students there was Sir Patrick Stewart.

Blessed began his career with a number of small roles. His first notable appearance was as PC Fancy Smith on "Z-Cars".  He played the role 3 years. He also appeared on shows such as "The Avengers" and "Randal and Hopkirk (Deceased)". As the video above shows Brian has performed in a number of Shakespearean roles. Not only did he play the Ghost of Hamlet's father in "Hamlet", he also appeared in "Henry V", "Much Ado About Nothing", and "As You like It". All of which were directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Brian Blessed as Prince  Vultan in Flash Gordon.

While the man has had a lot of success as a Shakespearean actor, even becoming a member of the  Royal Shakespeare Company along side former classmate Sir Patrick Stewart, he never shied away from a role. He showed his comedic ability by starring in the first season of "Black Adder" as Richard IV. He appeared in episodes of Sci-Fi TV shows like "Blake's 7", "Doctor Who", "Space: 1999", and "Survivors". Probably the best known of these roles was Prince Vultan from "Flash Gordon".

This is a picture of Brian Blessed from the show "Unbeatable Banzuke". He looks like a Samurai Viking. That is awesome.

Thanks to Brian's booming voice he has done a lot of voice over work. Such as playing The Captain on "Dennis the Menace", Clayton on "Tarzan", Boss Nass, in "Star Wars Episode 1", Admiral Constantine in Warhammer "40,000: Fire Warrior", and reprising the role of Prince Vutan for an episode of "Family Guy". He has also done voice work for "Grandma Dingley's Ingeniously Musical Tales" and is even a voice option for the TomTom satellite navigation device.

Brian is also an avid mountaineer. He climbed Mont Blanc at just 17 years old and has tried to climb Mount Everest on three separate occasions. He never reached the summit but in 1991, at the age 55, he climbed higher than any other man his age. A record that would stand until 2009. The attempt ended when Brian turned back to save the life of another climber at 29,000 feet.  He has successfully climbed Aconcagua as well as Kilimanjaro and holds the record for the oldest man to trek, on foot, to the magnetic North Pole. If that isn't enough he has undertaken an expedition deep into the jungles of Venezuela.

Brian Blessed with his wife.

Brian has also been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Bradford, and Sheffield Hallam University. In June 2011 he was nominated for the post of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. 

I need to get a pipe.

Brian has also written 5 books, and is a patron of the Hopefield Animal Sanctuary. Blessed has been married to Hildegarde Neil Zimmermann since 1978 and has one daughter with her. So not only is he an actor, writer, mountaineer, and much more he is also a father and husband. If that isn't awesome than I don't know what is.

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