‘He punched a polar bear on the nose!’ Ninety glorious years of Brian Blessed – by Emma Thompson, Adrian Lester and more

I know why Brian has lasted this long in spite of falling out of helicopters and off mountains and into lakes all his life: he started the whole being-cold-keeps-you-healthy thing years before Wim Hof was doing his motivational speaking.

Once, when we were shooting Ken Branagh’s Henry V at Shepperton, it was very cold out. I went to visit Brian in his dressing room. I was in my costume for the Princess of France, a lovely off-the-shoulder number. All the windows were open. It was bloody freezing. Brian started to tell me a story about Everest. I sat there, fascinated, getting colder and colder. He noticed – after some time – and said: “Thompson, why are you wearing blue lipstick?”

I tried to speak but my jaw had frozen in its sockets. He bundled me out into the heated corridors where I spent a good hour getting my body up to a functioning temperature. “The cold is good for you!” he thundered. And by God he was right. I took a cold shower every day after that.

The man is a legend: a force, a mighty wind and a great tree of life. He has the soul of a mountain-top. I will always love him deeply and appreciate his kindness to a young actress, his wit and fun and energy and gaiety, his loudness and his madness.

‘Now get to 100!’

Derek Jacobi

We first worked together at Birmingham Rep in 1960 when we would do a different play every month. It was my first job and he was the star of the show. I was in awe of him. He was still in his 20s but had a huge personality even then. I ended up sharing a dressing room with him, which was an education in itself. He was not particularly restrained – not when it came to pissing in the sink!

Brian is full of bluster and bigness, but underneath it all, he is as sensitive as the rest of us. He is a true man of the theatre and it was wonderful to learn from him. The next thing we did together was I, Claudius, in which he was marvellous as Augustus. Off-stage, he’s full of bonhomie, a great companion. Everything about him is big: his laughter, everything. But he’s not ego-driven: he’s just great company. My message to him is get to 100 and we’ll all be there applauding! We’re all applauding at 90 too!

‘Wow, he just says anything!’

Dexter Fletcher

I worked with Brian in the 1984 season at the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. I was in a couple of productions that he was in: Henry V, with Kenneth Branagh playing Young Hal and Brian playing the Duke of Exeter; and Hamlet, when Brian played Claudius and Virginia McKenna was Gertrude.

He came with this energy, exuberance and lust for life. I’d never seen anybody like him. He had a healthy belief in being who you are. He would talk about his cock quite openly: “That big blue vein on the side of your dick.” Branagh would be laughing, a lot of people would be shocked and Virginia McKenna didn’t seem fazed by it at all. I was 18 thinking: “Wow, he just says anything!”

Towards the end of the season, I got an offer of an acting role in a film called Revolution with Al Pacino. It was a big movie and I was only 18. Hamlet was going into the Barbican in London. I didn’t know what decision to make. It was Brian who took me aside at a rehearsal space at the back of the theatre and said: “Listen, Dexter, go and do the movie because the movie world is small and when you get into it, if you make a success of it, you’re in and it’s a great living.”

It led to a lot of movies – so I have a great love and affection for him because he did me a huge favour by shoving me in that direction.

‘He pinched my bottom. It was perfect for the scene’

Melody Anderson

I remember watching I, Claudius as I grew up and thinking Brian Blessed was an incredible actor. I was 23 and it was so exciting to meet him on the set of Flash Gordon and hear his Shakespearean voice bellow throughout the stages.

It was a tough shoot, six days a week, 12 hours a day, and to have his lightness and sense of humour to alleviate the stress of the job was a gift. He was as indefatigable off screen as he was as Prince Vultan of the Hawkmen. Brian did not have to stretch to create a character because that’s him. He is a Hawkman! He takes the space, the voice is always bellowing and there is that sly smile and twinkle in his eyes – which he still has at 90.

There is nothing more exciting than to work with an actor who is so inventive. Playing Dale Arden, I was on this table when we land on his planet and he was spinning me around and he just gave me a little bottom pinch. As an actor, I loved it because it solicited such an honest response. He gave me a whole other level of energy. It was exactly right for the character because it let me act like this haughty, temper-driven girl who beats up the guards at the king’s palace. It worked perfectly for the scene. Mike Hodges, the director, was thrilled.

When I was at conventions with Sam J Jones, who played Flash, we would sit back and be quiet and Brian would be off, pacing back and forth across the stage and taking over. We would smile and let it be the Brian show. He takes over any place he’s in. It’s not an ego thing: it’s a life force. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who has such energy and self-confidence.

He also has an enormous capacity to be sensitive. It’s a form of empathy to be able to pick up on the energies of the people around him and try to uplift their state if they were a little bit down.

Blessings to Brian Blessed! He is a gift in my life and I’m better for knowing him.

‘He appeared in our badger crusade video’

Brian May

I’m old enough to remember Brian’s first appearance on TV. He was in Z-Cars and even then he was an impressive character. Getting to work with him on the Flash Gordon film was the most amazing thing. I didn’t see him on set, I just saw him on footage that had been shot as the days went by. We were in the studio, playing along to it all, so I felt I knew him better than I actually did.

While everyone went back to finish the album Queen was making at the time, I made the soundtrack album for Flash Gordon. I pieced together lots of dialogue, sound effects and music – and you can hear Brian loud and clear. He’s a musical part of what we achieved, like an extra member of Queen.

For years, I used to see him around Windlesham in Surrey where my studio is. He often popped in to help us with our badger crusades. He did a great appearance in our Badger Badger Badger video, doing the Brian Blessed everybody wants, very loud and distinctive, shouting: “Keep the badgers alive!”

He’s blustery and apparently super-confident, but we saw a side of him that cares deeply and passionately about animals. Whenever we’ve asked him for help, he has always come straight away. I’ve seen him sit and talk movingly about the way we don’t accommodate wild animals in the world we’ve built. I see him as a very deep human being.

A very happy 90th to you, Brian. What an important piece you have been in the jigsaw of my life. I’ll forever be grateful to you and will forever enjoy the humanity and individuality you bring to all your work.

‘He never seems to conk out’

Alan Hinkes

It’s 30 years since we were on Everest – and Brian got to 7,700m before turning back. We’ve both been Yorkshireman of the Year and have the same wicked sense of humour. He can be over the top but he doesn’t offend me, although some of the anecdotes I daren’t tell you! Brian is a caricature of himself and I mean that in a good way: he is everything you expect him to be. I can’t help but laugh when I’m with him. On Everest, at base camp, he would regale us with tales in the mess tent and I would be rolling off my stool on to the floor which was probably -15C.

He wouldn’t be as ebullient as that when we were up on the mountain, because you’re gasping for oxygen in the rarefied air and suffering from acute mountain sickness, which you can die from. You wouldn’t expect anyone to be entertaining when you’re that high. But you think, “How does he keep going? Does he conk out in private?” Well, I’ve seen him in private – I spent two-and-a-half months with him and he didn’t seem to conk out.

At charity events, he’ll be humble and sing my praises. He’ll say: “Alan’s saved my life and he’s carried me down on his back when I was knackered.” That’s very flattering to me. I couldn’t really carry him down on my back, but it’s a good story. He’s a great raconteur.

‘His booming voice creates its own weather system’

Imogen Stubbs

I loved Brian when I worked with him in The Relapse at the National Theatre in 2001 – he was a delightfully terrifying figure running around on stage with a blunderbuss and his signature booming voice that creates its own weather system. But also with the sweetest, kindest personality backstage that was disarmingly quiet and contemplative at times. The perfect company member. Wonderfully playful. Taking acting seriously but not too seriously.

‘A rare, brilliant, kind-hearted giant’

Adrian Lester

Brian is often described as having a bombastic voice and a larger-than-life presence that makes us think of his performances as being, well, just performances. But don’t let that fool you. Brian brings to his characters a charisma and charm that isn’t larger than life. It is large and full to the brim with life. Honest, powerful life in all its shades. People still quote his intonation and volume when his character in Flash Gordon realises that “Gordon’s alive?!” He can tell you a story about a trip to the Arctic where he punched a polar bear on the nose and somehow you know it’s true.

Brian can be quiet, subtle and piercing. Then in the same breath he can open his mouth and shake the ground you stand on. I have had the privilege of standing opposite him in a scene and been subject to a delicate subtlety in character that many would not associate with him. A rare, brilliant, kind-hearted giant of a man. I wish there were more like him.