Cain
John Caird
Jonathan Cake
David Calder
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Michael Calf
Camille
Camino Real
Cheryl Campbell
Il Candelaio
Can Opener
The Canterbury Tales
Captain Swing
John Carlisle
Jason Carr
Carrie
Nancy Carroll
Elaine Cassidy
The Castle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Changeling
Jan Chappell
Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson Awards
Geoffrey Chaucer
Paddy Chayefsky
Anton Chekhov
Nick Chelton
The Cherry Orchard
Children of the Sun
Alison Chitty
A Christmas Carol
Christopher Columbus
Tony Church
Caryl Churchill
The Churchill Play
Clay
Dennis Clinton
A Clockwork Orange
The Collection
Patience Collier
Columbus and the Discovery of Japan
The Comedy of Errors
Complete Works Festival
Comrades
Kerry Condon
William Congreve
Shelley Conn
Paule Constable
The Constant Couple
Nina Conti
Kandis Cook
Ron Cook
Dominic Cooke
Nigel Cooke
Richard Cordery
Coriolanus
Charlotte Cornwell
Oliver Cotton
Yvonne Coulette
Country Dancing
The Country Wife
Courtyard Theatre
Cousin Vladimir
Andrea J. Cox
Brian Cox
Claire Cox
Cries from the Casement
Crimes in Hot Countries
The Criminals
Derbhle Crotty
Bob Crowley
The Crucible
Frances Cuka
Paddy Cunneen
Liam Cunningham
Julian Curry
Curse of the Starving Class
Curtmantle
Cyril Cusack
Niamh Cusack
Sinéad Cusack
The Custom of the Country
Cymbeline
Cyrano de Bergerac
At the age of fifteen Brian Cox joined the staff of his local repertory theatre. The Dundee Rep in 1960 was run by the Royal Court's Anthony Page and the company was brimming with talent. Cox worked as an assistant stage manager while the actors (led by Nicol Williamson, Edward Fox, Glenda Jackson and Lynn Redgrave) performed a different play every two weeks. At the age of seventeen he moved to London to study at LAMDA.
He played for a season at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh (1965-66), and came to notice at the Birmingham Rep (1966-68) in As You Like It (also Vaudeville) and Peer Gynt. During the next decade and a half, at the Royal Court, the Manchester Royal Exchange, the National, and elsewhere, Cox engaged with the theatrical establishment very much on his own terms: Steven in David Storey's In Celebration (Lindsay Anderson, Royal Court, 1969); The Wild Duck (Edinburgh Festival, 1969); Robert Thornton's The Big Romance (Roger Williams, Royal Court, 1970); Norman in Don't Start Without Me (Garrick, 1971); Mirandolina (Brighton, 1971); Getting On (Queen's, 1971); The Creditors (Open Space, 1972); Lovborg in Hedda Gabler (Anthony Page, Royal Court, 1972, Jill Bennett in the title role); Love's Labour's Lost, the title role in Brand, What the Butler Saw, and D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (Nottingham Playhouse, 1972); Proctor in David Storey's Cromwell (Page, Royal Court, 1973); Sergius in Arms and the Man (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 1974); Reilly in The Cocktail Party (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 1975); Pilgrims Progress (Prospect, 1975); Emigres (Young Vic, 1976); Taoridimas in Tamburlaine the Great (Peter Hall, NT Olivier, 1976); Brutus in Julius Caesar (John Schlesinger, NT Olivier, 1977); De Flores in The Changeling (Peter Gill, Riverside Studios, 1978); the title role in Herod (Sebastian Graham-Jones, NT Cottesloe, 1978); On Top (Ann Pennington, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1979); the title role in Macbeth (Cambridge Theatre Company, Tour of India, 1980); Summer Party (Sheffield Crucible, 1980); Have You Anything to Declare? (Royal Exchange, Manchester, and Roundhouse, 1981); Danton in Büchner's Danton's Death (Gill, NT Olivier, 1982); Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (Michael Elliott, Royal Exchange, Manchester, 1983); Darrell opposite Glenda Jackson in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude (Keith Hack, Duke of York's, 1984, Nederlander, New York, 1985); and the RUC interrogator in Ron Hutchinson's Rat in the Skull (Max Stafford-Clark, Royal Court, 1984, New York, 1985, Olivier for Best Actor).
For years Cox considered Stratford 'posh' and avoided the RSC. When he finally took up an offer in 1986 he intended it to be a stopgap. His participation in a brief autumn/winter season at the Barbican, playing Danton in Pam Gems's The Danton Affair (Ron Daniels), John Tarleton in Shaw's Misalliance (John Caird) and Sir Timothy Bellboys in John Whiting's A Penny for a Song (Howard Davies), was, in fact, the beginning of two-and-a-half years of inspired work: Paul Cash in Doug Lucie's Fashion (TOP, 1987, Pit, 1988); the title role in Deborah Warner's production of Titus Andronicus (Swan, 1987, Pit, 1988, European Tour, 1989, Olivier for Best Actor); Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (Jonathan Miller, RST, 1987, Barbican, 1988); and Vershinin in Three Sisters (John Barton, Barbican, 1988). Cox's Titus broke Lavinia's neck while tenderly cradling her on his lap. His sombre Petruchio was the opposite of the usual swaggering chauvinist.
Although best known for playing men of power in an unadorned style, Cox is a contemplative and analytical performer who strives to find some meaning in the actor's role. While working for the RSC in 1988 he taught a group of students at the Moscow Art Theatre, brought them to London to work with RSC directors, and directed their graduation production, The Crucible (see Cox's autobiography, Salem to Moscow, Methuen, 1991).
Now a RSC associate artist, Cox looked set to play Coriolanus and Lear for Deborah Warner and Antony for Terry Hands; however, when Cox and Warner discovered that Nicholas Hytner and John Wood were ahead of them in the 'queue' for King Lear they defected to the National and mounted their production in tandem with Ian McKellen's Richard III (Richard Eyre, Lyttelton, 1990, International Tour, 1991). Cox played Buckingham in the latter. Warner's disappointing Lear offered poor compensation for the loss of Cox's RSC Coriolanus and Antony (this last, scheduled for the autumn of 1989 with Jane Lapotaire as Cleopatra, was even announced). It is difficult to think of roles more suited to Cox's particular brand of contained power. He was one of the associate actors who returned for the 2000 Stratford open day, taking part in Adrian Noble's Measure for Measure rehearsal workshop (as Lucio) and joining Philip Voss, Desmond Barrit, Julian Glover and David Troughton for a discussion on Shakespeare, both serious and anecdotal. Cox revealed that his time at the RSC had been the best of his professional life.
If Cox hasn't said farewell to the stage—he played Solness in his own production of The Master Builder at Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, in 1993; the lead in the musical The Music Man (Ian Talbot) at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, in 1995; the Critic in Conor McPherson's St Nicholas at the Bush in 1997; Marc in Art (Matthew Warchus) on Broadway in 1998; John Plunkett in McPherson's Dublin Carol (Ian Rickson) at the Royal Court in 2000; the title role in John Byrne's Uncle Varick (Mark Thomson) at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, in 2004; and Max in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll (Trevor Nunn) at the Royal Court in 2006—he has for some years worked primarily in Hollywood, where he must be the hardest working British actor: Killearn in Rob Roy (Michael Caton-Jones, 1995); Argyle Wallace in Braveheart (Mel Gibson, 1995); Chain Reaction (Andrew Davis, 1996); The Glimmer Man (1996); Kiss the Girls (Gary Fleder, 1997); The Minus Man (Hampton Fancher, 1998); Desperate Measures (Barbet Schroeder, 1998); For Love of the Game (Sam Raimi, 1999); The Affair of the Necklace (2001); The Rookie (2001); Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002); The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002); The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002); X2 (Bryan Singer, 2003); Sin (2003); Agamemnon in Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004); The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass, 2004); Red Eye (Wes Craven, 2005); The Ringer (2005); Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007).
Some of Cox's best screen performances were given on British television—Henry II in The Devil's Crown (BBC, 1978); Laurent to Kate Nelligan's Thérèse in Thérèse Raquin (BBC, 1980); Sharpe (ITV, 1993)—and in low-budget films—Hannibal Lecktor in Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986); The Boxer (Jim Sheridan, 1997); Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998); The Reckoning (Paul McGuigan, 2004); and Running with Scissors (Ryan Murphy, 2006).
Other screen work: Trotsky in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971); Steven Shaw in In Celebration (Lindsay Anderson, 1975); Pope John Paul II (TV, 1984); Burgundy in King Lear (ITV, 1984); Shoot for the Sun (BBC, 1986); Waldemar Chrostowski in The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest (TV, 1986); Enemy of the State (TV, 1987); Shadow on the Sun (TV, 1988); Modern World: Ten Great Writers (Channel Four, 1988); Murder on the Moon (ITV, 1989); Kerrigan in Hidden Agenda (Ken Loach, 1990); The Secret Weapon (TV, 1990); The Lost Language of Cranes (BBC, 1991); The Cloning of Joanna May (ITV, 1991); Red Fox (TV, 1991); the Director in Six Characters in Search of an Author (1992); the title role in Grushko (BBC, 1993); Prince of Jutland (1994); Iron Will (1994); Judge Freisler in Witness Against Hitler (TV, 1996); Poodle Springs (Bob Rafelson, TV, 1998); Göring in Nuremberg (TV, 2000); A Woman in Winter (2005); Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005); The Flying Scotsman (2006); Deadwood (TV, 2006); The Outsiders (ITV, 2006); The Water Horse (2007).
Stage productions directed by Cox: The Man with a Flower in his Mouth (Edinburgh Festival, 1973); I Love My Love (Orange Tree, Richmond, 1982); Mrs Warren's Profession (Orange Tree, Richmond, 1989); The Philanderer (Hampstead Theatre, 1991); and Richard III (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, 1995).
Education: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
RSC: Joined 1986; Associate Artist (since 1989)
Seasons: 1986 (Lond.); 1987 (Strat.)-88/89 (Lond./International Tour)
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