Frederick Kenneth Blassie (February 8, 1918 – June 2, 2003) was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Blassie was an American professional wrestler and manager, known by the ring name "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Renowned as "The Hollywood Fashion Plate", he is regarded as one of the greatest wrestling heels, or villains, of all time.

His father was an abusive alcoholic, prompting Frederick to stay with his grandparents whenever his father beat his mother. As an adult, Frederick was a teetotaler. He graduated from McKinley High School and began work at a meatpacking plant. He also began boxing at a local community center and won a heavyweight championship title.

He became increasingly interested in wrestling. As the wrestlers became familiar with him, they began teaching him holds. His first public wrestling match was a shoot fight which he accepted hoping to impress a girl he brought to the show. Later, he received regular work wrestling at local carnivals. Blassie's famous "pencil-neck geek" catchphrase originated early in his career while describing a fellow carnival performer who appeared in a geek show. Blassie described this performer as "having a neck like a stack of dimes and a real pencil-neck geek". His career continued; he was hired by more established promoters, including Tom Packs in St. Louis and George Simpson in Kansas City.

After the US entered World War II, Blassie enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific Theater for 42 months. He achieved the rank of Petty Officer (Second Class) before he was discharged. Upon Blassie's return from the war, he was billed as "Sailor" Fred Blassie to capitalize on the wave of war-time patriotism sweeping the country, but that gimmick was unsuccessful. H then went to New York City to work for promoter Jess McMahon.

In 1952, Blassie moved to Los Angeles to work for Jules Strongbow. He teamed with Billy McDaniel as the McDaniel Brothers, but when they went east, they were known as the Blassie Brothers.

In 1953, he worked in the Atlanta, territory for Paul Jones (the wrestler of the 1930s, not the wrestler/manager of the 1980s). While there, he won the NWA Georgia Southern Heavyweight Championship, the holder of which was generally first in line to challenge the NWA World Heavyweight Champion whenever he passed through the territory. It was also during this period of his career when he dropped his babyface gimmick and became a full-fledged heel. The fans consistently booed him because he was considered a "Yankee". He also bleached his hair at this time, as many of the other stars of the era did. He was often billed as "The Vampire" during this time for biting his opponents and filing his teeth during interviews and promos.

In 1960, Blassie returned to Strongbow's promotion in Los Angeles, where he was a big star for Worldwide Wrestling Associates (WWA) of southern California, drawing many fans to the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. He was so hated there that uniformed police officers were regularly brought in to protect him as he made his way to and from the ring.

On June 12, 1961, Blassie defeated the "Flying Frenchman" Édouard Carpentier in a best-of-three-falls match for his first WWA World Heavyweight Championship. On July 7, Blassie successfully defended his title against the former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz. During that same title reign, in a match against Lord James Blears a fan threw acid on his back, and he had to return immediately to the locker room to wash it off; over the course of his career, he was also stabbed 21 times and lost vision in his right eye after being struck by a thrown hard-boiled egg. Blassie lost the title to Rikidōzan on March 28, 1962.

In 1962, Blassie had a feud with Japanese wrestling icon Rikidōzan that established his reputation in Japan. After Blassie lost the WWA World Heavyweight Championship to Rikidōzan in Los Angeles, the two had a rematch on live Japanese television. Many of the viewers were horrified by Blassie's treatment of their hero. One of Blassie's gimmicks was to file his teeth, and draw blood from his opponents by biting their foreheads. The sight of the Japanese legend covered in his own blood gave several viewers heart attacks, and some reportedly died.

In 1964 Blassie went to the WWWF, and feuded with Bruno Sammartino and Bobo Brazil. Blassie came into the WWWF with his own world title belt, claiming to be the Pacific World Champion, and was coming to Sammartino's "back yard" to unify the world title. The series began at Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964, with Blassie winning on a technicality, but not a pin. The rematches were held at Madison Square Garden in New York, with Sammartino winning out. He returned to the company in 1971, reaching the final of a tournament in January for the vacant WWWF United States Heavyweight Championship before losing to Pedro Morales. Blassie later challenged Morales for the WWWF Championship, but came up short. During this stint with the company, Blassie was managed by his future nemesis, "Captain" Lou Albano.

Blassie retired from active wrestling in 1974, due to a California law that prohibited anyone over 55 from getting a wrestling license. His knees were also in terrible condition, which also contributed to his retirement. Afterwards he became a manager in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and its subsequent incarnation the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He performed for that promotion until his full retirement from professional wrestling in 1986. Blassie, Lou Albano, and The Grand Wizard were named "The Three Wise Men of the East", as the top three heel managers in the company.

Among the men he managed were Nikolai Volkoff, The Iron Sheik, Blackjack Mulligan, High Chief Peter Maivia, "The Crippler" Ray Stevens, Jesse Ventura, Dick Murdoch, Swede Hanson, Killer Khan, George 'The Animal' Steele, Professor Tanaka, Mr. Fuji, Ivan Koloff, Lou Albano, Kamala, Hercules Hernandez, Hulk Hogan and more. Blassie also managed Muhammad Ali in his boxer vs. wrestler match in 1976 against Antonio Inoki.

Blassie led Shiek to the WWF World Heavyweight Championship over Bob Backlund on December 26, 1983, in Madison Square Garden. Blassie would gain even more gold when Volkoff and Sheik defeated The US Express for the WWF Tag Team Championship at the first ever Wrestlemania.

Because of his close relationship with Vince McMahon, Sr. and his family, Blassie remained on the WWF payroll until the day he died. Blassie was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1994 by Shane McMahon. In 2001, Blassie appeared in a special July 16, 2001 Raw is War segment for the Invasion storyline, wherein he exhorted a gathering of WWF wrestlers to stand tall against The Alliance – and later got mocked by Alliance leaders Shane and Stephanie McMahon. Because of this, Blassie is one of, if not the only man to have worked with all four generations of the McMahon family. On June 2, 2003, Blassie died of heart and kidney failure at the age of 85.

In 1975, Blassie recorded voiceovers for the songs "Blassie, King of Men" and "Pencil Neck Geek", which were performed by Johnny Legend. They received acclaim on the Dr. Demento Radio Show, and the latter song was featured on several albums, including Dr. Demento's 20th anniversary collection, The Very Best of Dr. Demento, and Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty CDs of All Time. In 1983, Rhino Records released a 14-track album by Blassie, titled I Bite The Songs.

Blassie appeared in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show that featured a new dance craze called The Twizzle. Rose Marie's character Sally Rogers brought him on at the end of the episode claiming to have discovered another new dance sensation. In the demonstration of the dance, Blassie picked up Rob Petrie and twirled him over his head.

"Classy" Freddie Blassie appeared in a live-action segment of the cartoon "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling."

"Classy" Freddie Blassie also made a cameo appearance as himself, along with "Wrestling's Living Legend" Bruno Sammartino, and Ric Flair in the 1986 film Body Slam starring Dirk Benedict, "Captain" Lou Albano, and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.[

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