Film and television
Cox made his first television appearance as Nelson in an episode of The Wednesday Play in 1965. He made one-off appearances in Redcap, ITV Playhouse and The Gamblers, before taking a lead role in The Year of the Sex Olympics in 1968. His first film appearance was as Leon Trotsky in Nicholas and Alexandra in 1971. In 1978 he played King Henry II of England in the acclaimed BBC2 drama serial The Devil's Crown, then starred in many other television dramas. He played the lead role in Dalhousie's Luck, a drama by Fulton Mackay set at the time of the siege of Aberdeen by the Marquess of Montrose in 1644 and broadcast as part of the BBC's Play for Today series on 3 August 1980. In the same year, he appeared in the ITV serial Hammer House of Horror as an ex-convict alongside veteran actor Peter Cushing. In 1981, he starred opposite Kate Nelligan and Alan Rickman in the BBC adaptation of Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin as Laurent LeClaire.
In 1986, he portrayed Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter, the character's first appearance on film.
In 1990, Cox portrayed Andrew Neil in Secret Weapon, based on Mordechai Vanunu's life story. In the same year, he guest-starred as Father Amedy in the comedy series Perfect Scoundrels and starred as police investigator Kerrigan in the political thriller Hidden Agenda. In 1991, he played the role of Owen Benjamin, the closeted father of a gay man, in the BBC production of David Leavitt's novel, The Lost Language of Cranes, which is set in the 1980s. For his performance he was nominated as Best Actor at the 1993 BAFTA TV Awards. He also played Geoffrey Harrison in the ITV thriller Red Fox based on Gerald Seymour's international best-seller. In 1992, he appeared in another ITV adaptation as Carl May in The Cloning of Joanna May based on Fay Weldon's sci-fi novel. He also appeared as Stefan Szabo in the first episode of the fifth season of Van der Valk. He played the title role in the short film The Cutter and "The Director" in BBC's anthology series of classic and contemporary plays Performance. He also starred as Carlton Heard in Deceptions and as Edward Hoyland in The Big Battalions, a series about three religious families of differing faith.
In 1993, he appeared as spymaster Major Hogan in two episodes of Sharpe, and as Brother Shaw in Sean's Show. He played P.O. Garvey in BBC's anthology series Scene featuring plays and documentaries originally broadcast for educational purposes. In the same year, he was seen in an episode of Inspector Morse, where he portrayed Michael Steppings, a retired bookmaker whose daughter is in a permanent coma. In 1994, he appeared alongside Kevin Spacey as Angus Mcleague in Iron Will. He portrayed Aethelwine alongside Christian Bale and Helen Mirren in Royal Deceit, an adaptation of the Danish legend of Prince Amleth. He also played the role of Colonel Grushko, 'a policeman who sees greed and rapacity in Russia's new mood', in Grushko, a British-made crime drama set in Russia. He then starred in The Negotiator as Charlie King, a "street copper" who had a heart attack.
He shot to superstardom in the mid-1990s thanks to roles in the likes of Rob Roy as Killearn and Braveheart as Argyle Wallace in 1995. His performance in the former earned him a BAFTA Scotland Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1996, he starred with Helen McRory as Judge Freisler in Witness Against Hitler which tells the true story of a Prussian intelligence officer and aristocrat who, with his fellow devout Christians, plotted to assassinate Hitler. In the same year he played Lyman Earl Collier, a murderous CEO in Chain Reaction. He also appeared with Steven Seagal in The Glimmer Man as the CIA superior Mr Smith, and with Samuel L. Jackson in The Long Kiss Goodnight as Nathan Waldman.
Cox made a guest appearance in the 1997 Red Dwarf episode "Stoke Me a Clipper", as a medieval king in a virtual reality game. In the same year, he appeared alongside Morgan Freeman in the neo-noir psychological thriller Kiss the Girls based on James Patterson's best-selling novel. He also played Nye Bevan in the drama Food for Ravens and ranking IRA member Joe Hamill in the Irish sports drama The Boxer alongside Daniel Day-Lewis. In 1998, he appeared as police captain Jeremiah Cassidy in Desperate Measures, Uncle Vladimir in the romantic comedy Merchants of Venus, Clayton Blackstone in HBO's neo-noir film Poodle Springs, and in the drama Family Brood.
That same year he appeared alongside Bill Murray in Wes Anderson's Rushmore as the school headmaster Dr. Nelson Guggenheim. The film is preserved by the Library of Congress in 2016 due to its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance. In 1999, he appeared opposite Owen Wilson as postal worker Doug Durwin in the thriller The Minus Man. He also played Sean Wallace in The Corruptor alongside Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg, and appeared as Gary Wheeler in the sports drama For Love of the Game. His New York theatre credits include St. Nicholas (1999), which earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination.
In 2000, Cox portrayed Lord Morton in Longitude, a dramatisation of Dava Sobel's book. He starred as the title character in The Invention of Dr. Morel, who invents a VR machine as a duplicate of the woman he loved. He also starred opposite Jonny Lee Miller as Inspector McDunn in Complicity, and as Sidney McLoughlin in the romantic comedy Mad About Mambo. He won an Emmy Award as Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actor for his portrayal of Hermann Göring in Nuremberg. He appeared in the Irish drama Saltwater as George Beneventi, a chip-shop-owning father troubled by loan sharks.
In 2001, he played the fatherly police Captain O'Hagan in Super Troopers. In the same year, he received critical acclaim for his performance as the paedophile Big John Harrigan in Michael Cuesta's L.I.E., winning a Satellite Award for Best Actor in Motion Picture Drama, and receiving nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Actor and the AFI Award for Featured Male Actor of the Year. In Strictly Sinatra, he played mob enforcer Chisolm who helps an aspiring musician passionate on Frank Sinatra. He also portrayed Baron de Breteuil in The Affair of the Necklace based on the diamond necklace incident that fuelled dissent against the French monarchy and led to the French Revolution.
In 2002, Cox appeared in A Shot at Glory as Rangers manager Martin Smith. He starred as Cyr in Bug in which a diverse group is propelled to a common fate by a series of cause-and-effect chain reactions. He played Jim Morris Sr. in the sports drama The Rookie, based on the true story of Jim Morris. In the same year, he guest-starred as Harry Moon in two episodes of the critically acclaimed series Frasier, for which he would receive an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. He then starred as corrupt CIA official Ward Abbott in the blockbuster film The Bourne Identity, opposite Matt Damon. He appeared as Michael O'Mara in The Biographer, and also starred as Richard Morgan in the supernatural horror thriller The Ring, a remake of the 1998 Japanese film. It was one of the highest grossing horror remakes, paving the way for other English-version horror remakes. He played Edward Norton's father James Brogan in 25th Hour, and also appeared in Spike Jonze's 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. He shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination as part of the ensemble cast of the latter.
In 2003, he played the villain William Stryker in X2: X-Men United and Captain Oakes in the direct-to-video crime thriller Sin. In 2004, he played Tobias in The Reckoning, a murder mystery drama set in the medieval period. Also in 2004, Cox played an alternate, villainous version of King Agamemnon opposite Brad Pitt in Troy. He also reprised his role as Ward Abbott in The Bourne Supremacy, the second instalment of the Bourne franchise. In the short film Get the Picture, he played Harry Sondheim, a journalist who doubts the guilt of four suspected terrorists. He portrayed King Lear in episode 4 of season 6 of French and Saunders, BBC's sketch comedy series as satire to popular culture. He was honoured at the 2004 BAFTA Scotland Awards with an Outstanding Achievement Award, and at the 2004 Great Scot Awards with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2005, Cox starred as Robert Smith in Blue/Orange, a BBC film adaptation of Joe Penhall's play exploring race, mental illness, and modern British life. He played Alec Hewett, patriarch of the wealthy family in Woody Allen's psychological thriller Match Point. He also played Rachel McAdams' father Joe Reisert in Red Eye. In the biographical drama The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes & Arthur Conan Doyle, he portrayed Doyle's mentor Dr. Joseph Bell. The television film explored how Doyle created Holmes and how he applied Bell's techniques in his novels. In the sports comedy The Ringer, he played Gary Barker who suggests to his nephew to enter and fix a Special Olympics to solve their financial woes.
In 2006, Cox played Dr Hunt in A Woman in Winter which explores the nature of obsessive love. In The Flying Scotsman, based on the life of Scottish amateur cyclist Graeme Obree, he portrayed Douglas Baxter, a boatyard owner and minister who befriends the atheist cyclist. He appeared as Jack Langrishe in the HBO series Deadwood. In ITV's The Outsiders, he played Gabriel, the head of the spy agency. In the comedy drama Running with Scissors, based on Augusten Burroughs' best-selling memoir about his childhood, he portrayed Dr Finch, the psychiatrist of Burroughs's mother and patriarch of an eccentric family with whom Burrough was sent to live.
In 2007, Cox portrayed prominent US lawyer Melvin Belli in David Fincher's mystery thriller Zodiac, based on Robert Graysmith's book which follows the manhunt for the Zodiac Killer. He also played old Angus in the fantasy drama The Water Horse, Mr Kreeg in the anthology horror Trick 'r Treat, Daniel Tennant in Shoot on Sight based on Operation Kratos, and Drosselmeyer in The Secret of the Nutcracker.
In 2008 Cox starred as Avery Ludlow in Red, and also played institutionalised convict Frank Perry, the protagonist in Rupert Wyatt's film, The Escapist (2008), appearing alongside Joseph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, and Damian Lewis. For the latter, he won that year's BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Acting Performance. In 2009, he appeared as Lewis Serrocold in the ITV series Marple, loosely based on Agatha Christie's books and short stories. He starred as Philip Van Doren in the Ridley Scott produced Tell-Tale, a film based on the short story The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. He starred as the legendary criminal godfather Ozzy in The Take, and portrayed King Vesper Abaddon, the former king of Carmel in Kings, loosely based on the biblical King David and set in a modern absolute monarchy. He also starred as the short-tempered bartender Jacques in the Icelandic film The Good Heart, and as Burt Macey in the crime drama Lost & Found. He also appeared as Dennis in The Day of the Triffids, based on John Wyndham's best-selling post-apocalyptic novel.
In 2010, he played Reverend Kalahan, cult leader and pastor whose death is the backdrop of the story in the crime thriller As Good as Dead. He portrayed former Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin in the television film On Expenses. He also starred as Wally, an old rogue who fulfills his old friend's dying wish for a sea burial in the black comedy All at Sea. In the same year, Cox played Laura Linney's father in the Showtime series The Big C, and appeared as Ivan Simonov in RED.
In 2011, Cox starred as Captain Rudolph Sharp in The Sinking of the Laconia, BBC Two's television film about the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Laconia during World War II. He co-starred with Gerard Butler and Ralph Fiennes as a quietly reasonable senator in Coriolanus, a modern British film adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy. He portrayed Baron William d'Aubigny, a lordly wool merchant against King John's tyranny in Ironclad, a war film set after the ratification of Magna Carta. In the American thriller The Key Man, he shared the screen with Hugo Weaving as Irving, a sociopathic con man and a Shakespearian actor. He then starred in The Veteran as a British intelligence officer who recruits a war veteran to track a female contact infiltrating a group of suspected terrorists. He also starred as John Landon in the science-fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He appeared as Glover Boyd, the retired policeman father of the protagonist in the Canadian biographical drama Citizen Gangster.
In 2012, Cox appeared in the Australian drama The Straits as the patriarch of the Montebello family crime syndicate, Harry Montebello. He appeared as Raymond Huggins, an associate of two corrupt businessmen brothers, in the political satire film The Campaign, and as Bill Ball in A Touch of Cloth, a parody of British police procedural dramas. He starred in Blood as Lenny Fairburn, a retired cop and father of two fraternal detectives played by Paul Bettany and Stephen Graham. He also appeared as an old man in the short film I Missed My Mother's Funeral.
In January 2013, Cox played the title character in the British comedy series Bob Servant. He said he played Servant, the creation of Dundonian author Neil Forsyth, based on memories of his late brother Charlie. He played Ivan Simanov in RED 2, reprising his role from the 2010 original film. In Blumenthal, he played the title role as the playwright Harold Blumenthal, who made a career out of parodying his family and died laughing at his own joke. He starred in Believe as the Scottish football manager Matt Busby, who returns from retirement to coach a group of young working-class boys. He also starred in the psychological thriller Mindscape (original title Anna) as Sebastian Cunningham, a superior in top memory detective agency Mindscape, which employs psychics to assist in solving criminal cases. He portrayed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in The Curse of Edgar, an original docudrama based on the best-selling novel by Marc Dugain about Hoover's battle to keep power away from the Kennedys. In November 2013, he portrayed Canadian television executive Sydney Newman, the driving force behind the creation of Doctor Who, in the BBC television docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time. He appeared in Tooned, an animated cartoon about Formula One racing, as an old mechanic, and as Magnus Bain in the crime drama series Shetland (2013–2014) which was initially based on Ann Cleeves' novels.
In 2014, Cox appeared in The Anomaly as Lloyd Langham, Ian Somerhalder's father in the sci-fi thriller, who conducted nightmarish experiments on the protagonist. He also appeared in the documentary The Great War: The People's Story as Reverend Andrew Clark, and in BBC's Cold War spy thriller series The Game as an MI5 superior codenamed "Daddy". He also reprised his role in the second series of Bob Servant.
In 2015, he starred in The Slap, an American adaptation of the Australian series based on Christos Tsiolka's novel, as Manolis Apostolou, the father of the main character played by Peter Sarsgaard. He appeared in the sci-fi comedy Pixels as a military heavyweight starring alongside Adam Sandler, and in the Canadian revisionist western film Forsaken as a local gang leader. He also starred in the short film Killing Thyme as a grumpy old man with a squandered allotment and a death wish.
In 2016, he starred in the British-Hungarian comedy The Carer as Sir Michael Gifford, an ageing Shakespearian actor, and in the BBC's historical drama series adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel War & Peace as General Mikhail Kutuzov. He was nominated at the BAFTA Scotland Awards for Best Actor for his portrayal in the former. He also received a Career Achievement Award at the Stony Brook Film Festival for the same role. He appeared in season 3 of the horror drama series Penny Dreadful as Jared Talbot, a ruthless, powerful American rancher and the estranged father of Josh Hartnett's character. He also appeared in the sci-fi thriller Morgan as Jim Bryce, and starred alongside Emile Hirsch in The Autopsy of Jane Doe as Tommy. In the first series of the Italian-British historical drama series Medici, he portrayed Bernardo Guadagni, an officer of the Signoria.
In 2017, he appeared as Marlon Brando in Urban Myths, a biographical comedy drama series in which each episode features a story about popular culture icons. In June, Cox starred in the critically acclaimed historical war drama Churchill, playing the title role as Winston Churchill.
In April 2018, Cox reprised his role of Captain John O'Hagen in Super Troopers 2. Early drafts of the script excluded Cox's character from the movie, with reservations on whether Cox would want to return or not for the sequel. It was later announced he would return, Cox himself joking that it was on the condition that he receive a "big action scene with rockets and explosions". In May, he starred in The Etruscan Smile as Rory MacNeil, a dying man who reunites with his estranged son. He starred in the first season of Succession, HBO's satirical drama which premiered to positive reviews, as Logan Roy, the patriarch of the dysfunctional Roy family and the billionaire founder of the global media and entertainment conglomerate Waystar RoyCo. In November, he starred as Henry in James Franco's drama Pretenders.
In June 2019, he played William "Bill" Erwin in Strange But True, a thriller adaptation of John Searles' novel. In August, he starred as Shane in the romantic comedy Remember Me. In the same month, the second season of Succession premiered in which Cox reprised his role, earning him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and a nomination for the Emmy Award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series. The series garnered critical acclaim receiving numerous awards and nominations, winning the British Academy Television Award for Best International Programme, the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama, and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. In the same year, he played Father Reilly in the comedy drama The Last Right.
In 2020, Cox starred as Gilles in the American neo-noir thriller Last Moment of Clarity. In The Bay of Silence, he played Milton Hunter, a powerful art dealer and stepfather to a celebrated artist. In 2021, he played Paul Rivers in the horror film Separation.
In July 2021, it was announced that Cox would join the cast of the family drama Prisoner's Daughter which tells the story of an ex-con trying to reconnect with his daughter and grandson. The film was released at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival to mixed critical reviews, with Cox's performance praised as one of the highlights. He also did voice work for the animated short-film Wittgenstein's Poker as Bertrand Russell.
In November 2020, it was announced that Cox would be joining the cast of the "audio movie series" Unsinkable, told in eleven 20-minute episodes based on the oil tanker MV San Demetrio, set on fire by a German battleship in 1940; the crew was ordered to abandon ship, but reboarded the burning vessel two days later and with no charts or radio sailed her to Britain.
He was executive producer of and starred in the 2022 American drama film Mending the Line. He plays a Vietnam veteran who teaches a young injured soldier how to fly fish, hoping it would help him cope with his physical and emotional trauma. He stars in the 2022 political thriller The Independent, which centres on a young journalist who teams up with her idol (Cox) to uncover a major conspiracy.
Cox appears in the 2024 films Skelly and provided the voice of Helm Hammerhand in the animated film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
In 2023 he played the lead role of Johann Sebastian Bach in Oliver Cotton's play The Score at the Theatre Royal, Bath, directed by Trevor Nunn. The production and cast transferred to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 2025.
In 2025, he return to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade to perform in James Graham's play Make It Happen, in the role of Adam Smith. While in Edinburgh for this role, Cox also participated in a fundraiser for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in his capacity as a Fringe Ambassador.
