- Born
- Birth nameDaniel Ronald Cox
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Ronny Cox is a superbly talented actor, singer-songwriter, and musician who has been consistently active in Hollywood for more than 40 years portraying a diverse range of characters. Born in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, Cox received positive reviews for his first film role, his portrayal of ill-fated businessman Drew Ballinger in the terrifying backwoods thriller Deliverance (1972), with Cox featuring in the entertaining "Duelling Banjos" sequence of the film. Following this promising start, Cox regularly guest-starred in numerous television series before scoring the lead in the short-lived family drama Apple's Way (1974) and grabbing the critics' attention again with an excellent performance in the Emmy-nominated TV movie A Case of Rape (1974).
Interestingly, Cox was often at his best playing rigorous authority figures, usually in law enforcement or military roles, including as a detective in the TV movie Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975), alongside Charlton Heston in the submarine drama Gray Lady Down (1978), as a Los Angeles detective pursuing cop killers in The Onion Field (1979), and alongside then-rising stars Tom Cruise and Sean Penn in the powerful Taps (1981). The 1980s was a high-profile decade for Cox, with strong supporting roles in several blockbusters playing strong-willed figures on both sides of the law. Cox starred alongside box office sensation Eddie Murphy in the mega-hit Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and its sequel, Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), as well as portraying sinister company executives in the futuristic sci-fi action films RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990).
Throughout the 1990s, Cox was again prolific, appearing in many television series, feature films, and high-caliber TV movies. He took control of the USS Enterprise for two episodes as Captain Edward Jellico in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and contributed entertaining performances in Murder at 1600 (1997), Early Edition (1996), Forces of Nature (1999), and the chilling tale Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder (2000). Cox has continued to remain busy with more recent performances in Stargate SG-1 (1997), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), and the highly popular Desperate Housewives (2004). However, when he's not in front of the cameras, Cox can be found touring and demonstrating his musical talents at various music festivals and theater shows and, to date, he has released ten albums (four of them live performances)-an eclectic mixture of jazz, folk, and western tunes.- IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.com
- SpouseMary Cox(September 10, 1960 - December 18, 2006) (her death, 2 children)
- Frequently plays strong-willed, confrontational authority figures
- Frequently plays antagonistic military or government officials who have many disagreements with the protagonist
- Met his wife, Mary Cox, in high school when he was age 14.
- Is also a folk singer.
- Attended and graduated from Eastern New Mexico University with a double major in theater and speech correction (1963).
- Fronted a rock 'n' roll band called Ron's Rockouts with two of his brothers while attending college. He not only sang most of the lead vocals, but also played rhythm guitar and blues harp in the band.
- When he guest-starred as Captain Edward Jellico in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) entitled "Chain of Command: Parts 1 and 2" (episode #6.11), he had the distinction of being the only other actor besides Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes in "The Best of Both Worlds: Part 2" to do a "Captain's Log" entry on the entire run of the series.
- The fun for me is still acting, though I like doing everything. I'm not really interested in being a superstar. I have a really wonderful, secure private life. The thing about becoming a 'star' is that you get offered the really good roles and that's what I want. I found out a long time ago that the hardest thing about playing Hamlet is being asked to do it. Luckily for me, now, I'm being asked. (from a 1988 interview)
- I don't have much respect for what I call the 'technical' actors, who work out every little nuance of how they're going to say the words. To me, that's acting in a vacuum. It seems to me to be a tremendous act of hubris to decide ahead of time how you're going to react to the way I say something. I love playing characters. I'm not interested in playing myself, although I'm the conduit for that character.
- I'm not a well-trained actor in the classical sense but what I think I have going for me is a sense of honesty about my work.
- The fun for me is playing characters -- not that I would ever turn down superstardom. But I would only use stardom as a way to get access to all the really great roles. I want to play everything.
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