British actor Brian Blessed cast himself as an emergency midwife off-screen — and what transpired may be too unbelievable for any script.
The 78-year-old “Robin Hood” and “Star Wars: Episode I” actor revealed that he delivered a baby in a park 50 years ago, going so far as to bite through the umbilical cord with his teeth before paramedics arrived.
“Years ago when I was in (the TV series) ‘Z Cars,’ about 1963, I was running all over Richmond Park and a woman was having a baby under a tree and there was no one around,” Blessed told BBC Radio 4 for a special on midwives on Wednesday. “She knew me from ‘Z Cars.’ ‘Please, I’m having a baby’… ‘It’s all right dear, breathe deeply and gradually got the baby out slowly.'”
Blessed didn’t stop there with his postnatal services.
“I pressed her belly and got rid of the clots, and the afterbirth came out,” he explained to the incredulous host, adding that he grew up in a small working class mining town where it was natural to take care of babies.
“Then I bit it loose and tied it into a knot, and then I just called for help and eventually an ambulance came,” added the theater vet, who also starred in Oliver Stone’s “Alexander.”
“I was covered in blood, my shirt was covered in blood, I was wrapping and wiping her saying, ‘It’s all right darling,’ and I was licking the baby’s face.”
