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Brian Blessed (born 9 October 1936) played King Yrcanos in the Doctor Who serial Mindwarp.
A popular UK character actor known for his bombastic, larger-than-life demeanour both on film and in person, Blessed rose to stardom in the mid-1960s as a long-running cast member on the police drama Z Cars. He played Porthos in a pair of TV series based upon The Three Musketeers. Other TV roles included Boy Dominic, Space: 1999 (playing the father of Maya, Catherine Schell's character), I, Claudius (with Derek Jacobi and George Baker) and the first season of Blackadder. His best-known film was the 1980 version of Flash Gordon which also co-starred Timothy Dalton.
Away from the screen, Blessed is known for leading a life of adventure, including several widely publicised attempts to climb Mount Everest (he is reportedly the oldest man to reach as high up the mountain as he has); during preparation for one of his ascents, he met and befriended the Dalai Lama.