Brian Cox

Cox was born in Dundee, Scotland.

Cox was trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

He made his first television appearance as an extra in several episodes of The Prisoner in 1967 before taking a lead role in The Year of the Sex Olympics the next year.

In 1978, he played King Henry II of England in the acclaimed BBC2 drama serial, The Devil's Crown, following which he starred in many other television dramas.

Cox is an accomplished Shakespearean actor, spending seasons with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in the 1980s and 1990s.

His work with the RSC included a critically acclaimed and harrowing performance as Titus in the rarely staged Titus Andronicus, as well as playing Petruchio in The Taming of The Shrew.

He later went on to play King Lear at the National Theatre.

In 1986 during the production of Manhunter, while he was playing Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins was playing King Lear on stage at the National Theatre.

In 1991 he played the part of 'Owen Benjamin' in the ground-breaking and controversial BBC 'Screen 2' production of David Leavitt's novel The Lost Language of Cranes set in the 1980s as a closeted gay father to a gay son.

His most famous appearances include Rob Roy, Braveheart (both in 1995), The Ring, X2, Troy and The Bourne Supremacy.

He usually plays villains, such as a rogue colonel in X2, the tyrannical Agamemnon in Troy, Pariah Dark in the Danny Phantom television movie Reign Storm, and a devious CIA official in the Bourne films and in Chain Reaction.

In 2002, he appeared in Spike Jonze's Charlie Kaufman-scripted Adaptation as the real-life screenwriting teacher, Robert McKee, giving advice to Nicolas Cage in both his roles, as Charlie Kaufman and Charlie's fictional twin-brother Donald.

As of 2007 Cox is filming Red, based on Jack Ketchum's novel and directed by Lucky McKee. It also stars Tom Sizemore, Amanda Plummer, and Angela Bettis