Brian Cox

Biography

Brian Cox (born 1946 in Dundee, Scotland) is a British actor with a classical Shakespearean background, known in theatre as well as in film and television. His career spans more than half a century, taking him from British stages and Broadway to large-scale productions and prestige series. On screen he is usually a character actor, often playing figures of authority or moral ambiguity.

Cox trained at the Dundee Repertory Theatre and became a founding member of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. He later studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1965. His stage work includes productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. In 1983 he appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in King Lear, and he went on to win two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Actor, for Rat in the Skull (1984) and Titus Andronicus (1988). He has said that his Titus is the finest performance he has given on stage.

His film debut came with Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), in which he played Leon Trotsky. In 1986 he became the first actor to play Hannibal Lecter, in Manhunter, before the role passed to Anthony Hopkins. Over the following decades he moved between large productions such as Braveheart (1995) and Troy (2004), where he played Agamemnon, and X2 (2003), where he played William Stryker, and author-driven films such as Adaptation (2002), directed by Spike Jonze, and Match Point (2005), directed by Woody Allen. His work with Daniel Day-Lewis in Jim Sheridan's The Boxer is also often cited.

In 2000 he played Hermann Göring in the docudrama Nuremberg. For that role he won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Later, in the HBO series Succession (2018-2023), he played media magnate Logan Roy. The performance earned him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series and several Emmy nominations, and it remains his best-known television work.

Beyond film and television, Cox voiced a character in the video game Manhunt, developed by Rockstar Games, and in 2008 he received the best actor award at the Sitges Film Festival. In the 2003 New Year Honours he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He has also directed stage productions and, in 2016, became co-artistic director of Mirror Theater Ltd.

Cox remains active on stage and screen. His career combines classical theatre, mainstream cinema and prestige television, making him one of the most recognisable British actors of his generation.

Key films

• Nicholas and Alexandra (1971): his first film role, as Leon Trotsky.
• Braveheart (1995): a supporting part in Mel Gibson's epic about Scottish independence.
• Troy (2004): plays Agamemnon in the large-scale retelling of the Trojan War.
• X2 (2003): as William Stryker, the scientist who hunts mutants.
• Match Point (2005): one of Woody Allen's dramas shot in London.