Actor Brian Blessed reappears after collapse at King Lear

British actor Brian Blessed collapsed on stage while playing King Lear, but returned after just 20 minutes to finish the show.

The booming-voiced 78-year-old had begun to deliver his opening lines in the Shakespearean tragedy when he apparently fainted and fell from a raised platform.

Daily Mail critic Quentin Letts reported that fellow actor Noel White said: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is not part of the play. Is there a doctor in the house?”

A doctor from Holy Trinity Church in Guildford, Surrey, who was at Monday night’s performance attended to the ex-Z Cars actor on stage in front of the audience, including his daughter Rosalind.

Blessed — whose career in television, film and stage has spanned six decades — returned 20 minutes later after being clapped off by the audience, Letts reported.

In his review, Letts added: “After being given a cup of sweetened tea, he returned to the stage after 20 minutes to apologise to the final-preview audience for the interruption.”

Blessed reportedly said: “I feel such an idiot and am not in the habit of doing this, but I have little fibrillation.”

At the curtain call, as some other cast members were said to be in tears, Blessed patted his heart and gave a thumbs up gesture, Letts said.

PA