Ronny Cox

Daniel Ronald Cox was born on July 23, 1938, in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, the third of five children born to Lounette (née Rucker) and Bob P. Cox, a carpenter who also worked at a dairy. He grew up in Portales, New Mexico, and earned a double major in theater and speech correction from Eastern New Mexico University in 1963. Cox met his future wife Mary when he was 14 and she was 11; they began dating when he was 18 and she was 15, and married in 1960. The couple had two sons. Mary died in 2006, exactly 50 years to the day of their first date, and Cox has frequently spoken about her during his music performances.

Cox began his professional stage career in New York, appearing on Broadway in 1969 in the production Indians. His screen career launched three years later when he was cast in the 1972 film Deliverance, a role he secured because of his ability to play guitar. In one of the film's notable scenes, Cox performed the instrumental piece "Dueling Banjos" on guitar alongside a banjo-playing character portrayed by child actor Billy Redden. Cox later recounted his experiences making the film in his 2012 autobiography, Dueling Banjos: The Deliverance of Drew.

Television work followed steadily through the 1970s. In 1974, Cox starred in Apple's Way, a short-lived family-oriented series created by Earl Hamner, who also created The Waltons. He appeared as Mr. Webb in a television production of Our Town and in 1977 appeared in the episode "Devil Pack" from Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected. In 1986, he played the mayor in two episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and later took on the role of Dr. John Gideon during the final season of the medical drama St. Elsewhere.

Cox's film profile rose considerably in 1984 when he was cast as Lt. Andrew Bogomil in Beverly Hills Cop, a role he reprised in Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987. That same year, he appeared in director Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop as corporate antagonist Richard "Dick" Jones. In 1990, Cox played the villainous Mars Administrator Vilos Cohaagen in Total Recall, also directed by Verhoeven, and co-starred as Los Angeles Police Chief Roger Kendrick in the television series Cop Rock. That year he was noted for bearing a physical resemblance to real-world LAPD Chief Daryl Gates. In 1997, Cox portrayed fictional U.S. President Jack Neil in Murder at 1600, and in 2000 he played John Ramsey in the television film Perfect Murder, Perfect Town.

Among his recurring television roles, Cox played Senator and later Vice President Robert Kinsey in Stargate SG-1 and appeared as Captain Edward Jellico in the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part episode "Chain of Command." Beginning in 2022, he reprised the character, now promoted to Admiral Jellico, in several episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy. He also played Henry Mason, the father of Bree Van de Kamp, on Desperate Housewives, and Gideon Claybourne in season six of Nashville in 2018. Additional television credits include a guest appearance in Diagnosis Murder, a role as Walter Kenney — a serial killer known as "The Tooth Fairy" — in season six of Dexter, a part in The Starter Wife, and a guest role in Matthew Perry's 2011 series Mr. Sunshine. In animation, Cox lent his voice to the character Doc in Invasion America and Senator McMillan in Todd McFarlane's Spawn.

Alongside his acting work, Cox has maintained an active career as a musician, performing with his band at more than 100 festivals and theaters per year as of 2012, turning down approximately 90 percent of acting offers to prioritize music. He also leads an annual musical tour to Ireland. On November 2, 2019, Cox was inducted into the New Mexico Music Hall of Fame. On July 25, 2021, he received the 2021 Best Folk Music Award at the New Mexico Music Awards for his song "Portales," from the album Live at the Kitchen Sink, recorded at The Kitchen Sink Recording Studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with the Norman Petty Producers Award for that recording going to Tom (Panda) Ryan.