Brian Blessed played King Vultan in the 1980 Flash Gordon movie. A Shakespearean (and friend of fellow sci-fi veteran Patrick Stewart), Blessed's wildly exuberant performance oddly became a career-defining role, with fans often uttering his catchphrases "Gordon's Alive?" and "Who wants to live forever?" in his presence. Unlike Stewart, he doesn't seem to mind. Blessed played King Yrcanos, a very similar character, including many situation similarities, in the Doctor Who serial The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp, and voiced the equally intractable Boss Nass of the Gungans in Star Wars:Episode 1.