Brian Cox

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Brian Cox

Scottish actor

Also known as: Brian Denis Cox

Written by Fred Frommer

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Apr 15, 2025 • Article History

Quick Facts

In full:: Brian Denis Cox

Born:: June 1, 1946, Dundee, Scotland (age 78)

Awards And Honors:: Emmy Award (2001); Emmy Award (2001): Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie; Golden Globe Award (2020): Best Actor in a Television Series - Drama

Married To:: Nicole Ansari-Cox (2002–present); Caroline Burt (1968–1986)

Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In):: "From Now" (2020–2021); "The Bay of Silence" (2020); "Last Moment of Clarity" (2020); "The Last Right" (2019); "Succession" (2018–2019); "Remember Me" (2019); "Strange But True" (2019); "Good Omens" (2019); "Dark Highlands" (2018); "Pretenders" (2018); "Super Troopers 2" (2018); "The Etruscan Smile" (2018); "Churchill" (2017); "Bob the Builder: Mega Machines" (2017); "Urban Myths" (2017); "Medici" (2016); "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" (2016); "Morgan" (2016); "Penny Dreadful" (2016); "War & Peace" (2016); "The Carer" (2016); "Forsaken" (2015); "Pixels" (2015); "The Slap" (2015); "Bob Servant" (2014); "The Game" (2014); "The Great War: The People's Story" (2014); "The Anomaly" (2014); "Shetland" (2014); "Tooned" (2013); "Anna" (2013); "Her" (2013); "Believe" (2013); "Blumenthal" (2013); "RED 2" (2013); "M.I.High" (2013); "Bob Servant Independent" (2013); "Blood" (2012); "A Touch of Cloth" (2012); "The Campaign" (2012); "The Straits" (2012); "Exit Humanity" (2011); "Citizen Gangster" (2011); "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (2011); "The Veteran" (2011); "The Key Man" (2011); "Ironclad" (2011); "Coriolanus" (2011); "The Sinking of the Laconia" (2011); "The Big C" (2010); "RED" (2010); "Wide Blue Yonder" (2010); "As Good as Dead" (2010); "The Day of the Triffids" (2009); "Doctor Who" (2009); "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (2009); "The Good Heart" (2009); "Kings" (2009); "The Take" (2009); "Tell-Tale" (2009); "Agatha Christie's Marple" (2009); "Agent Crush" (2008); "The Colour of Magic" (2008); "The Escapist" (2008); "Red" (2008); "Shoot on Sight" (2007); "Trick 'r Treat" (2007); "The Water Horse" (2007); "Battle for Terra" (2007); "Zodiac" (2007); "Running with Scissors" (2006); "Deadwood" (2006); "The Flying Scotsman" (2006); "A Woman in Winter" (2006); "The Ringer" (2005); "Danny Phantom" (2005); "Red Eye" (2005); "Match Point" (2005); "French and Saunders" (2004); "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004); "Troy" (2004); "Sin" (2003); "X2" (2003); "The Reckoning" (2002); "25th Hour" (2002); "Adaptation." (2002); "The Ring" (2002); "The Bourne Identity" (2002); "Frasier" (2002); "The Rookie" (2002); "Bug" (2002); "The Affair of the Necklace" (2001); "Strictly Sinatra" (2001); "L.I.E." (2001); "Super Troopers" (2001); "Saltwater" (2000); "A Shot at Glory" (2000); "Animated Tales of the World" (2000); "Nuremberg" (2000); "Mad About Mambo" (2000); "Complicity" (2000); "For Love of the Game" (1999); "The Corruptor" (1999); "The Minus Man" (1999); "Rushmore" (1998); "Merchants of Venus" (1998); "Desperate Measures" (1998); "The Boxer" (1997); "Kiss the Girls" (1997); "Superman: The Animated Series" (1997); "Red Dwarf" (1997); "The Long Kiss Goodnight" (1996); "The Glimmer Man" (1996); "Chain Reaction" (1996); "Braveheart" (1995); "Rob Roy" (1995); "Grushko" (1994); "Prince of Jutland" (1994); "Iron Will" (1994); "Sean's Show" (1993); "Scene" (1993); "Sharpe" (1993); "Inspector Morse" (1993); "Deceptions" (1992); "The Big Battalions" (1992); "Performance" (1992); "Shakespeare: The Animated Tales" (1992); "Van der Valk" (1992); "The Cloning of Joanna May" (1992); "Red Fox" (1991); "The Lost Language of Cranes" (1991); "Hidden Agenda" (1990); "Perfect Scoundrels" (1990); "The Modern World: Ten Great Writers" (1988); "Omnibus" (1987); "Unnatural Causes" (1986); "Manhunter" (1986); "The Fourth Floor" (1986); "Scotland's Story" (1984); "Jemima Shore Investigates" (1983); "Crown Court" (1976–1982); "Minder" (1982); "Play for Today" (1976–1982); "The House on the Hill" (1981); "Hammer House of Horror" (1980); "BBC2 Playhouse" (1980); "Thérèse Raquin" (1980); "Out" (1978); "The Devil's Crown" (1978); "Target" (1977); "Rooms" (1977); "Play from 'A'" (1976); "Shades of Greene" (1975); "The Master of Ballantrae" (1975); "In Celebration" (1975); "Churchill's People" (1975); "Sutherland's Law" (1974); "BBC Play of the Month" (1974); "Nicholas and Alexandra" (1971); "Thirty-Minute Theatre" (1969–1971); "Stage 2" (1971); "Manhunt" (1970); "Doomwatch" (1970); "ITV Saturday Night Theatre" (1970); "Z Cars" (1969); "Theatre 625" (1968); "The Gamblers" (1967); "ITV Playhouse" (1967); "Redcap" (1966); "The Wednesday Play" (1965)

Brian Cox (born June 1, 1946, Dundee, Scotland) is a Scottish actor best known for playing the tyrannical media mogul Logan Roy in the comedy-drama television series Succession (2018–23). He is also known for portraying Nazi Party leader Hermann Göring in the historical drama miniseries Nuremberg (2000). Cox has had a long career in theatre, film, and television with a knack for playing villainous characters.

Early life

Cox is the youngest child of Mary Ann Guillerline (née McCann) Cox, who worked in the textile industry, and Charles McArdle Campbell Cox, who was a grocery shopkeeper. His father often helped people in need, giving food to his customers on credit. He died of pancreatic cancer when Brian Cox was just eight years old, and there was virtually no money left for the family, which became destitute. Cox would often have to ask shopkeepers if they could spare any leftover food, such as pan scraps from the local fish and chips shop, and bring it home for dinner. His mother suffered several nervous breakdowns, and his elder sisters raised him. Cox quit school just before his 15th birthday, and he performed errands and chores at the Dundee Repertory Theatre, occasionally sleeping there. When he was 17 he received a full scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 1965. He has said that acting provided an escape from the hardships of his tough and lonely childhood.

Career

Cox made his London theatre debut in a 1967 production of William Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It as the sensitive romantic lead, Orlando. He went on to portray Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in the historical drama film Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). In the 1980s he started landing regular roles in television and film, including a turn as Father Jan Góra in the biographical television movie Pope John Paul II (1984). He played Dr. Hannibal Lecktor in the thriller film Manhunter in 1986, five years before actor Anthony Hopkins played the character (now spelled Hannibal Lecter) in the suspense film The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Cox continued to work in the theatre, making his Broadway debut in a 1985 production of Eugene O’Neill’s experimental play Strange Interlude. He won an Olivier Award in 1988 for his performance in Shakespeare’s tragedy Titus Andronicus, and he garnered critical acclaim for playing the title role in the Royal National Theatre company’s production of King Lear (1990).

Cox returned to film in the mid-1990s, portraying Argyle Wallace, uncle of protagonist William Wallace, in the historical drama Braveheart (1995). He went on to appear in the science fiction thriller Chain Reaction (1996), the police action-comedy The Glimmer Man (1996), the thriller The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), the sports drama The Boxer (1997), and the comedy Rushmore (1998). He won an Emmy Award for outstanding performance in a miniseries or a movie in 2001 for his portrayal of Hermann Göring in the historical miniseries Nuremberg.

He continued to appear in feature films in the 2000s, such as the comedy Super Troopers (2001), the drama L.I.E. (2001), the spy thrillers The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and the supernatural horror film The Ring (2002). He portrayed the father of middle-aged aspiring Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Morris (played by Dennis Quaid) in the sports drama The Rookie (2002). Cox played the villainous colonel William Stryker in the superhero film X2: X-Men United in 2003, and he portrayed the wealthy father-in-law of a former professional tennis player in director Woody Allen’s psychological thriller Match Point (2005). Cox’s career continued to gain momentum over the next 10 years, as he landed roles in the comedy-drama film Running with Scissors (2006), the Western television series Deadwood (2006), the science fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and the miniseries drama The Slap (2015).

In Succession, Cox plays Logan Roy, the Roy family patriarch and founder of the media corporation Waystar Royco, a character who resembles media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch. Roy’s entitled children battle over who will succeed him when he dies. Cox has stated that he relates to the hard-hearted Roy in a way, saying that he also harbours a lot of anger, in part because of his tough upbringing. In 2020 he won a Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actor in a television series drama for his work on Succession. Cox and the rest of the cast won a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series in 2022.

Cox has publicly disagreed with fellow Succession cast member Jeremy Strong’s approach to acting, telling NPR that he found it annoying when Strong, who plays Roy’s son Kendall, stayed in character between takes, a technique that Cox dislikes. He believes that actors should to be able to walk away from their characters, or else they risk losing their sense of perspective.

When Cox finished writing his memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat (2022), he reportedly became depressed, because it made him wonder if the book represented the complete summation of his life. He serves as a narrator and interviewer in the television documentary, Brian Cox: How the Other Half Live (2022), which highlights the growing wealth gap between rich and poor people around the world. He said in 2020 that—because of his support for Scottish independence—he regretted becoming a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2003 and that he would never accept a knighthood.

Fred Frommer

Succession

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Succession

American television series

Written by Jordana Rosenfeld

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Awards And Honors:: Golden Globe Award; Emmy Award (2024)

See all related content

Succession, American comedy-drama television series created by British writer and producer Jesse Armstrong that aired on HBO from 2018 to 2023. The series focuses on the Roy family, whose aging patriarch, Logan Roy, owns the entertainment and media conglomerate Waystar Royco, one of the last surviving legacy media concerns, and struggles to pick a successor from among his power-hungry children, advisers, and investors. While Roy reluctantly acknowledges the need to choose a successor, he cannot seem to find one that satisfies both his desire to maintain family control over his company and to leave his life’s work to someone as mercilessly ambitious as he is.

Widely praised for its imaginative profanity-laden dialogue, its prismatic classical music score by Nicholas Britell, and masterful performances by a cast of seasoned actors, Succession follows cutthroat corporate maneuverings and personal betrayals as almost everyone around Roy competes to succeed him.

Cast and characters

*Succession*Actors Jeremy Strong (left) and Alan Ruck portraying Kendall and Connor Roy in *Succession* (2018–23).

Continuing HBO’s penchant for popularizing some of television’s most notorious antiheroes (such as in The Sopranos, The Wire, and Game of Thrones), Succession is a show with virtually no “good guys.” The series has garnered praise for its nuanced characters, who are deeply flawed, often selfish and cruel, and yet not completely unsympathetic to viewers.

Iron-fisted billionaire Logan Roy, played by Scottish actor Brian Cox, has raised his four children within family dynamics defined by extravagant wealth, scarcity of affection, and constant competition. Having grown up poor and survived familial abuse throughout his childhood in Scotland only to move to the United States and become one of the country’s most powerful and influential individuals, Logan sought to give his children the comfort and amenities he never had and to raise them to be as hard-boiled and resourceful as he is. At the start of the series, as Logan turns 80 years old, he seems utterly unsatisfied with the results of his parenting.

His children desperately seek his approval, which mires them in the paradox that Logan would never give his respect to anyone so desirous of it. His eldest son, Connor Roy, played by American actor Alan Ruck, attempts to stay out of the fray, on his ranch in New Mexico, consumed by his comical Libertarian-leaning U.S. presidential run. Although he appears in some ways to be the natural choice to assume control of Waystar, Kendall Roy, Logan’s first child from his second marriage, played by American actor Jeremy Strong, also suffers from delusions of grandeur, as he appears to consider himself a more cunning and capable corporate operative than he proves to be. He struggles with substance use disorder, the aftermath of a painful divorce, and his father’s apparent low regard for him, but he persists in his efforts to become the successor.

Siobhan (“Shiv”) Roy, played by Australian actress Sarah Snook, at first seems driven to find success outside the family confines as a political consultant but eventually owns up to her desire to take the reins at Waystar. She keeps everyone, including her husband, at an emotional distance. Logan’s youngest child, Roman Roy, played by American actor Kieran Culkin, seems to be the underdog in the filial power struggle. Sarcastic and vulgar, Roman is terrified of vulnerability and seems to lack the courage to defy his father. The family is rounded out by Shiv’s obsequious, social-climbing husband, Tom Wambsgans, a Midwestern transplant played by British actor Matthew Macfadyen, and the Roy children’s cousin Greg Hirsch, who is alternatingly a bumbling fool and an enterprising sycophant, portrayed by American actor Nicholas Braun.

Despite their lavish wealth, the Roys’ world often appears unmistakably joyless, which is reflected in the show’s sterile, impersonal settings and bland design choices. Although the Roys derive such little pleasure or satisfaction from their wealth, “For these people to be excluded from the flame of money and power, I think, would feel a bit like death,” creator Armstrong told The New Yorker magazine in 2021.

Real-life inspiration

Although Armstrong claims that his portrait of the Roys was influenced by many different famous media family dynasties, including the Redstones, the Hearsts, and the Mercers, much attention has been paid to the similarities between Logan Roy’s family and that of Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born American media mogul and founder of Fox News.

In a 2023 article for The Guardian, Armstrong described some of the characteristics and personality traits shared by the media moguls after whom he modeled Logan Roy: “They were connected by a strong interest in a few things: a refusal to think about mortality…; desire for control; manic deal-making energy; love of gossip and power-connection; a certain ruthlessness about hirings and firings. And most of all, an instinct for forward motion, with a notable lack of introspection.”

Critical reception

Although Succession has drawn fewer viewers than HBO’s most popular shows, it has received extensive critical attention from national outlets covering news and culture. In 2023 reporting on media trends found that Succession spawned six times as many online articles in one 30-day period in summer 2023 as any other highly watched television show and seemed to confirm that Succession sparked outsized media coverage compared with reader interest. Some critics have speculated that the media’s fascination with the show stems from its own involvement in the volatile and sometimes toxic media industry that the show portrays.

In addition, Succession boasts numerous award nominations and wins. Its four-season run garnered a total of 75 Emmy Award nominations and 19 wins. Armstrong won the best writing Emmy for episodes from all of the show’s four seasons. In its final season, the show made Emmy history when Cox, Strong, and Culkin were all nominated for best lead actor in a drama series, and ultimately captured six Emmys: best drama series; best lead actor in a drama series (Culkin); best lead actress (Snook); best supporting actor (Macfadyen); best writing (Armstrong); and best directing (Mark Mylod).

Jordana Rosenfeld