Brian Cox makes authority sound habitual, and gives unpleasant men enough humanity to make them harder to dismiss. We rate him most highly when a role asks for more than the familiar gruffness; too many supporting parts have settled for that.
Fi1m perspective
Brian Cox often sounds as though giving orders has become an ordinary part of the working day. The gruffness is familiar, but we value his ability to leave something recognisably human in men we would rather dismiss. Manhunter (1986), in which he played Hannibal Lecter, brought him his first screen notice. From the mid-1990s, Hollywood repeatedly cast him in supporting roles. The risk was that a director could hire the voice and ask for little else.
Rushmore (1998) is a good place to see why he need not be the centre of a film to be worth having in it. Wes Anderson casts him as Dr Nelson Guggenheim in a school comedy that understands how exhausting a self-appointed prodigy can be. Cox’s familiar authority is useful amid the careful eccentricity: Anderson gets something solid to set against the fussier behaviour. We were unexpectedly saddened by Rushmore, because Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray give that exhausting behaviour a cost we can feel. They provide the strongest reason to watch, but Cox fits a comedy in which being difficult need not make someone uninteresting.
In Doug Liman’s The Bourne Identity (2002), he plays Ward Abbott, and the appeal of that supporting work is different. The spy chase is urgent, the plotting efficient, and Cox’s established association with authority gives the casting an immediate usefulness. We recommend the film readily, with a reservation about the occasional contrivance needed to keep it moving. Its tenderness comes chiefly from Matt Damon and Franka Potente; Cox is part of a film that knows where to put its attention. The limitation of such casting is that recognisable authority can become all a supporting role requires, leaving his ability to humanise difficult men underused.
Succession (2018–2023) gives him a lead as Logan Roy and more room for the difficult patriarchs he plays so well. His strength is allowing an unpleasant man to remain recognisably human without making him easy company. We would still welcome more parts that do not require him to begin in charge, however reliably he can supply the gruffness. Start with Rushmore for the comedy; choose Succession when there is time for a longer acquaintance.
Biography
Brian Denis Cox (born 1 June 1946) is a Scottish actor. He trained at the Dundee Repertory Theatre and was a founding member of the Royal Lyceum Theatre. He performed with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in productions including King Lear.
Cox received two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Actor, for Rat in the Skull (1984) and Titus Andronicus (1988). On screen he is known for roles including Dr. Nelson Guggenheim in Rushmore (1998), Logan Roy in Succession (2018–2023), and Michael Steppings in Inspector Morse (1987). He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Nuremberg (2000) and a Golden Globe Award for Succession. In 2003 he was appointed CBE.
