Brian Blessed

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

Patrick Troughton, Doctor Who, TV, 1966-1969.
Norman Mitchell, Doctor Who #21: The Daleks’ Master Plan, 1964-1965. Yes, I repeat #21… Blessed (once asked to be Doc2), was still being invited into the Whoverse 50 years later… for #256: The Girl Who Died, in 2015…!!! One part of this 12-parter was Doctor’s first and last Christmas Special in the original 1963-1989 years. And Blessed was going to revive his Z Cars cop, PC Fancy Smith, for some added tinsel. The suits felt that Doc1 William Hartnell breaking the fourth wall to wish viewers a Happy Christmas was sparkle enough… From hereon, Whoverse suits kept adding the top Z Cars stars to their wishlists: Blessed, James Ellis, Jeremy Kemp, Stratford Johns, Frank Windsor. In fact, producer John Nathan-Taylor spent his entire (scandalous) nine-year 80s’ reign persuading Ellis into the Whoverse… and got him for his final production.
Bill Fraser, Doctor Who #110: Meglos, TV, 1980. General Grugger was a step up from Fraser’s most famous TV rôle, Sergeant-Major Claude Snudge, in The Army Game, 1959-1960, and the (more successful) Bootsie and Snudge, 1960-1974. Grugger had been written for… Lee Marvin!!!!
George Baker, Doctor Who #111: Full Circle, TV, 1980. The baker’s dozen actors up for Login were familiar names from 80s’ Whoverse casting. Blessed, Baker, Joss Ackland, ,John Carson, James Ellis, Frank Finlay, Bernard Hepton, Donald Houston, Jeremy Kemp, William Lucas, Alfred Lynch, TP McKenna, Edward Woodward.And they stayed listed until they became available. As they did… Blessed, for example, became King Yrcanos in the 1986 season-long #143: The Trial of a Time Lord.
Michael Robbins, Doctor Who #119: The Visitation, TV, 1982. One of Doc5 Peter Davison’s three favourite tales, although Robbins hated his rôle as much as scenarist Eric Saward disliked the performance. Also up for Richard Mace were Blessed, Ian Bannen, John Carson, Frank Finlay, Ronald Fraser, Donald Houston, William Lucas, Glyn Owen and Donald Pleasence.
Richard Easton, Doctor Who # 122: Time Flight, TV, 1982. The 19 nominations for Concorde pilot Captain Stapley in the worst Doc5 Peter Davison episode (the budget ran out…) were Blessed, Easton, Terence Alexander, Peter Arne, Keith Barron, John Carson, Michael Craig, Paul Darrow, Peter Gilmore, Michael Gothard, John Hallam, Terrence Hardiman, Del Henney, Glyn Houston, Martin Jarvis, William Lucas, Conrad Phillips, Anthony Valentine and Frank Windsor.
Frank Windsor, Doctor Who #128: The King’s Demons, 1983. Producer John Nathan-Taylor’s usual suspects were flagpoled for Sir Ranulf Fitzwilliam at the court of King John, circa 1215… Joss Ackland, George Baker, Ian Bannen, Julian Glover, Michael Jayston, Peter Jeffrey, Dinsdale Landen, Alfred Lynch, TP McKenna, Clifford Rose, Peter Vaughan, Edward Woodward. Plus three Z Cars cops: booming Brian Blessed, Irish James Ellis… and the quiet Windsor.
Michael Gothard, Lifeforce, 1984.
Tom Adams, Doctor Who #130: Warriors of The Deep, 1984. Competing for Commander Vorshak in Doc5 Peter Davison’s finale were 13 of the army of 203 candidates for just 18 roles in that year’s Lifeforce movie: Steven Berkoff, Kenneth Colley, Michael Craigh, Paul Darrow, Anton Diffring, Del Henney, Martin Jarvis, Ian McCulloch, Patrick Mower, Patrick Stewart, David Warner, Simon Williams and Peter Wyngarde. Plus three outsiders: Blessed, Peter Gilmore, Gareth Hunt. Who was science fiction, Lifeforce was science fart
Maurice Colbourne, Doctor Who #133: Resurrection Of The Daleks, TV, 1984. Producer John Nathan-Turner wanted a name for Commander Lytton… like Blessed, Meg Bennett, Kenneth Cope, Timothy Dalton (the future Lord President in #202: The End of Time, 2000), Leslie Grantham (not yet Dirty Den in EastEnders), Alfred Lynch, Clive Merrison (BBC Radio’s Sherlock Holmes), Terry Molloy (aka Davros), John Rhys-Davies, Maurice Roëves. Plus many Lifeforcers: Nicholas Ball, Steven Berkoff, Tom Chadbon, Paul Darrow, Michael Gothard, Don Henderson, Del Henney (he became Colonel Archer), Martin Jarvis, Michael Jayston, Edward Peel, George Sewell, Patrick Stewart, Anthony Valentine and David Warner. All 25 up for one role in Doctor Who… preposterous!
Terry Molloy, Doctor Who #137: Attack of the Cybermen, 1984. Blessed, Ralph Bates, Brian Glover (he became Griffiths), Bernard Hill and Edward Woodward were seen for Russell in the 22nd season opener. However, director Matthew Robinson wanted to reward Molloy with a human character – after his heavily made-up Davros in the previous #133: Resurrection of the Daleks, 1984.
Martin Jarvis, Doctor Who #138: Vengeance on Varos, TV, 1984. Blessed, Jarvis, George Baker, Keith Barron, John Carson, Frank Finlay, Julian Glover, John Hallam, Terrence Hardiman, John Hurt, Derek Jacobi, Michael Jayston, Dinsdale Landen, Ian McKellen, Anthony Valentine, and David Warner were the 16 choices for the beleaguered Governor of Varos, a kind of Pontius Pilate.
John Stratton, Doctor Who #140: The Two Doctors, TV, 1985. The two Time Lords were Doc2 Patrick Troughton and Doc 6, the short lived Colin Baker. Shockeyes were more plentiful. The 22 prospects were: Blessed, Stratton, Joss Ackland, George Baker, Ian Bannen, Denholm Elliott, James Ellis, Frank Finlay, Ronald Fraser, Michael Gothard, Don Henderson, Donald Houston, Freddie Jones, Jeremy Kemp, Roy Kinnear, Ronald Lacey, TP McKenna, Aubrey Morris, Donald Pleasence, Peter Sallis, George Sewell, Peter Vaughan..
Tom Chadbon, Doctor Who #143: The Trial of a Time Lord, TV, 1986. With the franchise was as much on trial as The Doctor, 16 actors were flagpoled for Merdeen... Blessed, Tom Adams, Keith Barron, Hywel Bennett, Andrew Burt, Kenneth Colley, Peter Gilmore, Michael Gothard, Gareth Hunt, Paul Jerricho, Clive Merrison, Paul Shelley, Anthony Valentine, David Warner, James Warwick.
Tony Selby, Doctor Who #143: The Trial of a Time Lord, TV, 1986. Blessed and Nicholas Ball were also talked about for Sabalom Glitz when Doc6 Colin Baker was in the dock for season-long trial. Blessed was switched, majestically, to King Ycranos.
David Ogden Stiers, Pocahontas, 1994. When did you ever hear anyone say: Man I hated the movie, kept trying to work out where I’d heard the Governor’s voice before… Disney barred Richard White from voicing Governor Ratcliffe because the public would recognise him as Gaston’s voice in the 1990 Beauty and the Beast toon. As if actors cannot change their voices. And then… and then !!… they gave it to DOS and had him also voice his own manservant, Wiggins! Which proved an actor can change his voice, wouldn’t you say… Five Brits were also in the frame: Brians Blessed and Cox, Rupert Everett, Stephen Fry, Patrick Stewart. Well, there were no US accents in the 17th Century.
Oliver Ford Davies, Star Wars – Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, 1997.
Anthony Zerbe, Star Trek: Insurrection, 1998. The ninth Trek… Director (and co-star) Jonathan Frakes – voted for Wilford Brimley or Gene Hackman for Admiral Doughtery, When asked if he had any ideas, Patrick Stewart reccommended Blessed, his pal since childhood. The suits passed. He would, after all, have eaten all the Paramount scenery.
Anthony Hopkins, Thor, 2010. Renowned for majestic, not to say over-ze-top, XXXXL portrayals, Blessed (“Women are my religion”) was inevitably in the mix for Odin, the mighty ruler of the Asgardians and father of Thor who he bansishes to earth. Believing less is more, Hopkins is the exact opposite of Blessed… featured in all four of director Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearean films.
Richard Armitage, The Hobbit trilogy, 2011.
David Schofield, Doctor Who #256: The Girl Who Died, 2015. And he lost Odin again….due to ill-health. In response to his boombox voice, York University voted in 2011 to call a newly-built study centre… The Brian Blessed Centre for Quiet Study!

Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 20

WELCOME

to the films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories. Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making! And 2,777,633 words of spirited text.

The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars

HE SAID

“They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing any more.” – Adam Driver on no more Kylo Ren/Ben Solo ... Or is it that there will be no more Star Wars?

“I’ve been acting for 42 years and then you make one cocktail…” – Stanley Tucci on his new fame as a TV food and cookery expert.

"The point is it's very hard work and you have to really want to do it. It has to be something that you're burning to say." – Martin Scorsese on directing at 80 and thinking “possibly only one more”.

“Whether you are a competent actor, or an artist, is incidental. The main business is: you’re product. I had a hard time steadying myself against that stuff.” – Robert Redford.

“I’ve never done the same thing twice and how many people can say that?” – Tom Hanks… forgetting his two successive Oscars.

“I was so excited when I got the script for Silent Night. There’s no dialogue in the entire movie! I thought this would be very good for me because it lets me use my gifts for telling a story visually. – John Woo on his Hollywood comeback at 77.

“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father.” – Nic Cage.

“The man who invented mornings was no Christian.” – Peter O’Toole.

“The moustache did the acting.” – Anthony Hopkins on Howards End.

“It’s very difficult to get 100 million people to watch anything,” – writer-director Joe Russo.

“I gave him a little part in Looper, where he got to be shot in the face by Bruce Willis. He was just so overjoyed… like a little kid.” – director Rian Johnson on his father.

“I'm not an actor - and I've got 64 films to prove it!” – Victor Mature.

“If you cast it right, you don’t have to tell the actors what to do.” – John Huston.

CCC CLIPS

>> Name Game. James Spader really started something with his Blacklist series. He played – remember? – Reddington. And now we have Austin Butler and, Emma Stone are in making Eddington… and newbie Glenn Powell is Huntingdon, his tenth gig since Top Gun: Maverick. Perhaps it’s time to re-issue Carrington… with, among others, Steven Waddington!

>> Christopher Nolan says “No, sadly no – no truth to those rumours.” About making the next Bond. So, no Cillian Murphy as Jimbo, then?

>> Rolling Stone. Those Poor Things, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, are – naturally – in the next release of their Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s Emma’s third Yorgos collaboration. Most likely she’ll be in his next one, too, a re-make of the South Korean hit, Save the Green Planet. That was a comedy. But one can never categorise a Lanthimos experience. After all this one was first titled… And.

>> Taylor Swift’s guy, US football superstar Travis Kelce, is making moves on movies. To be as famous as Dwayne Johnson. Although people are now beginning to ask: Dwyane Whosis?

>>Brandon Routh was Superman back in the day. Today he’s in…Ick.

>> A star sure was born! Lady Gaga now getting $10million for Joker 2…

>> Sean Ono Lennon says Emma Stone should play his dad. Now there’s a thought. After all, Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan…

>> Sly Stallone has come this far without bothering with serial killers but that’s what he’s chasing in The Epiphany. He plays a retiring cop - what else at 78?

>> Thirty years after the first, Neve Campbell returns in Scream 7. She refused #6 over a money row…

>> Beatles director Sam Mendes made Skyfall and Spectre and another actor who has played John Lennon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, might yet be the next 007…

>> Ryan Gosling tipped to be join the Marvelverse. (They need him more than he them). Henry Cavill may follow – so definitely no Bond then. Not after Argylle. If anyone witnessed that accident, could they call the appropriate authorities.

>> Will Smith comes back (or so he hopes) in an almost suicide squad blasting drug dealers in Sugar Bandits… while Colin Farrell settles for just Sugar – back to his usual smoothie looks after The Penguin…

>> White Lotus 3 resurrects Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Charlotte Le Bon, Scott Glenn and introduces Patrick Schwarzenegger. But which one is going to flash…something?

CHAMPION'S LEAGUE

The battle for the top spot between Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson has – I think – come to an end. Recently, we‘ve seen Marlon leading Jack by one or two movies – and then, almost immediately, vice-versa. The gap is much wider now between the former Mulholland Drive neighbours. Latest research dug up more titles for Jack - Mr Mom, A Christmas Story, Striptease, The Bicentennial Man, Expend4bles – so that he is now safe (?) at the top of league with 177 films he chose not to make compared to Brando’s 172. But you know - you never know…

(The full list of their huge lists of bypassed films are not on their pages for now - one of the hassles being tackled in our - yes, very slow! – restructuring).

Marlon Brando – 177
Jack Nicholson – 172
Paul Newman – 160
Cary Grant – 150
Robert De Niro – 140
Tom Cruise – 135
Dustin Hoffman – 126
Mel Gibson – 118
Sean Connery, Al Pacino – 117

Highest Brit remains, as always, Sir Sean at 117… followed by Laurence OIivier, 93; Richard Burton, 87; Peter O’Toole, 79; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Peter Sellers, 72; Dirk Bogarde and James Mason, 68; Olivia De Havilland, 58; Vivien Leigh and Gary Oldman, 57.

Highest lady is Bette Davis, 97; Jodie Foster, 84; Michelle Pfeiffer, 81; Katharine Hepburn, 79; Julie Christie, 76; Meryl Streep, 75; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Nicole Kidman, 72: Jane Fonda, 70; Julia Roberts, 68.

Younger Brigade: Johnny Depp 108; Leo, 75; Jim Carrey, 70; Madonna, 62; Natalie Portman, 57; Aishawarya Rai Bachchan, 40; Bridget Fonda, 36: Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, 35; Jake Gyllenhall, 33: Ben Affleck, 31.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

A BOND MISS

Is Léa Seydoux now a spy…or, to be more polite, a talent scout for Eon Productions? 007’s girl in both Spectre and No Time to Die appears to assisting the (rather quiet) search for the next Jimbo. In La bête (The Beast), one of her many new French films, Léa co-stars with Hammersmith’s George MacKay - Sam Mendes’ find for 1917. He learned French for the film, so this may not be his last Paris booking.

As Gabrielle and Louis, they work extremely well together as star-crossed lovers in three time-lines: 1904, 1914 and 2044. And he looks the business in his retro tuxedo. ‘Twould be fascinating to cast an eye over her report for Barbara Broccoli’s eyes only. On verra as Léa (and now even George) would say. We’ll see.

SHE SAID

“You need your parents to set boundaries and hold you accountable and keep you away from, like, weird people.” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a child actor.

“I was so deeply in love with Bella, it terrified me not to live up to her as a character. I felt like I was failing her in the first week, and failing Yorgos [Lanthimos]. ). It was just difficult. I could talk to him about it, but I couldn’t talk to her about it. “ – Emma Stone on making Poor Things, leading to her second Oscar.

“Everything was so beautiful up on that screen. That make-believe world was much more pleasant than anything I was experiencing. I didn’t like reality. I wanted to be in the movies, even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen. My mother said, ‘you better learn to type,’ but I didn’t listen. Somehow, some way, thank you God, it all came true.” – Barbra Streisand, receiving lifetime achievement honour from the Screen Actors Guild.

“If I arrive at a moment in the history of cinema where I am legally obliged to have some kind of police on my set telling me what I’m allowed to do, I would rather stop filming sex scenes completely.” – French director Mia Hansen-Løve.

“I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothin’, I would never retire, I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage, someday, hopefully one I’ve written.” – Dolly Parton.

“Playing it safe doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere. You have to take chances. especially if you’re a black woman. You have no choice.” – Halle Berry.

“The more famous an actress becomes, the less she's allowed to eat.” – Lana Turner.

“I don’t do T&A very well because I haven’t got much of either.” – Tea Leoni.

“I was an idiot in terms of career-building, but I had a great time.” – Sally Kellerman.

“As you get older, you realise your parents aren't these superheroes. They're actually people.” – Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

“Everybody thought I was crazy. And by the way, I thought I was crazy.” – Jennifer Lopez on spending $20m of her own money on making This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.

“It’s dangerous to repeat performances. It becomes the sole thing on your gravestone.” – Helen Mirren on playing The Queen in The Queen and on stage in The Audience.

“I think I was offered every Marilyn Monroe script ever. I was like: Is this the end of the road creatively?’” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a star.

WAIT & SEE...

This is such a busy year for movies that various releases have been postponed until 2025… Captain America: Brave New World, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, Games of Thrones spin-off The Hedge Knight (not about a gardener), Ke Huy Quan’s actioner With Love, John Wick’s spin-off, Ballerina, Fast X :part 2, Avatar 3, Jurassic World 4, Black Mirror 7, Mission: Impossible 8, Fantastic Four, Superman and the dreaded Michael bio – more like horror film, surely. Oh and no The Batman 2 or Harry P TV series until 2026.