Boisterous British actor Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and television. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, Brian was born in 1936 and grew up in the mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire. His father was a miner who wanted a better life for his son; Brian lost three uncles in the pit. At a young age, he displayed an acute talent for acting in school productions, but also had a penchant for boxing, a direction that would be short-lived. Working various blue-collar jobs from undertaker's assistant to plasterer, Brian managed to attend the Bristol Old Vic and was off and running. He has lent his musical talents to several productions - from playing "Old Deuteronomy" in "Cats" to "The Baron" in the more recent "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". In the 1970s, he began appearing more and more on-camera with both classical and contemporary performances. In costumed television movies, he has played "Porthos" in The Three Musketeers (1966) and The Further Adventures of the Musketeers (1967), "Augustus" in I, Claudius (1976), and "Long John Silver" in Return to Treasure Island (1986) and has been a part of various reenactments including Catherine the Great (1995), Lady Chatterley (1993), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) and Kidnapped (1995). On film, he has appeared in robust support in several William Shakespeare adaptations, including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Macbeth (1997) and the title role in King Lear (1999), which he also directed. More recently, he appeared in Oliver Stone's epic-scale Alexander (2004) and in Kenneth Branagh's film version of William Shakespeare's As You Like It (2006). In recent years, the octogenarian has been heard more than seen with voice work in video games, documentaries and such animated TV programs as Kika & Bob (2007) (as Bob); The Amazing World of Gumball (2011) (as Santa Claus); Wizards vs. Aliens (2012) (as the Necross King); Henry Hugglemonster (2013) (as Eduardo Enormomonster); and Peppa Pig (2004) as Grampy Rabbit. He is married to British actress Hildegard Neil, who made an appearance with him in Macbeth (1997). Brian left school at 15 and became a plasterer's assistant then a plasterer's before winning a scholarship to a drama school where he met and married Ann Beaumont and had a daughter Cathy. He met Hildegard Neil in 1973 when they starred in Boy Dominc and after marrying they had a daughter, Rosalind. In his 30's he took up mountaineering and climbed the highest peaks in Europe and South America. His life time ambition was to climb Everest which in 1993 at the age of 53 he got the chance and half climbed in the style of pioneer George Malory using no oxygen but had to give up with the summit in sight. 3 years later he tried again and broke the record for his age in reaching 28,000 feet where he came across another climber dying through his oxygen failing and took him down 1,000 feet to an oxygen cache then 10 hours later got him to the South Col saving his life. In 1996 he made a 3rd attempt but news reached him that his mother and brother were dying so at 25,000 gave up and returned home. In 2001 he was in a TV drama with his daughter playing father and daughter. His ultimate dream is to have a flight into space as a tourist and to that end has visited the Russian space centre in Moscow.