Brian Cox CBE |
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Cox at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival
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Born |
Brian Denis Cox 1 June 1946 Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1965–present |
Spouse(s) |
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Children | 4, including Alan Cox |
Brian Denis Cox, CBE (born 1 June 1946) is a Scottish actor who works with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he gained recognition for his portrayal of King Lear. He is also best known for appearing in The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, X2, Braveheart, Rushmore, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Troy and Doctor Who. He was the first actor to portray Hannibal Lecter on film in the 1986 feature film Manhunter.
Cox was born in Dundee, the only son and youngest of five children. He is from a working class Roman Catholic family, of Irish and Scottish descent. His mother, Mary Ann Guillerline (née McCann), was a spinner who worked in the jute mills and suffered several nervous breakdowns during Cox's childhood. His father, Charles McArdle Campbell Cox, was a butcher and later a shopkeeper, and died when Cox was eight years old. Cox was brought up by his four elder sisters. He joined Dundee Repertory Theatre at the age of 14.
Cox was educated at St Mary's Forebank Primary School, followed by St Michael's Junior Secondary School (both in Dundee), which he left at the age of 15. After working at Dundee Repertory Theatre for a couple of years, he went to drama school from the age of 17 to 19, at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.