Ronny Cox

Ronny Cox
Biographical information
Birth name:	Daniel Ronald Cox
Gender:	male
Birth date:	July 23, 1938
Birth place:	Cloudcroft, New Mexicon US
Occupation(s):	actor, musician
Production information
Role(s):	actor: Dick Jones
Production(s):	RoboCop

Daniel Ronald "Ronny" Cox (born July 23, 1938) is an American character actor, singer/songwriter, and guitarist.

Biography

Personal life

Cox, the third of five children, was born in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, the son of Lounette (née Rucker) and Bob P. Cox, a carpenter who also worked at a dairy. He grew up in Portales, New Mexico. Cox tours regularly with a band, performing at theaters and folk music festivals. On September 10, 1960, he married Mary Cox. She died in 2006; they had two children. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1963 with a double major in theater and speech correction.

Career

As an actor, known for his debut performance as Drew Ballinger in the acclaimed 1972 film Deliverance in which he plays the instrumental "Dueling Banjos" on his guitar with a mentally retarded banjo-playing mountain boy named Lonnie, played by child actor Billy Redden. Twelve years later in the low budget film Courage, Cox once again played as a member of a small group of men, this time lost in the Nevada desert, being chased and systematically murdered by bloodthirsty locals. Cox has also appeared as Lieutenant/Captain/Chief of Police Andrew Bogomil in Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop II, Richard "Dick" Jones in RoboCop, Mars Administrator Vilos Cohaagen in Total Recall, and Senator/Vice-President Robert Kinsey in Stargate SG-1. In 1997, Cox portrayed the fictional President of the United States Jack Neil in the movie Murder at 1600. Cox also portrayed John Ramsey in the 2000 TV movie Perfect Murder, Perfect Town.

From 1974-1975, Cox starred in the short-lived CBS family-oriented dramatic series entitled Apple's Way created by Earl Hamner, who created The Waltons. He appeared as "Mr. Webb" in a television production of Our Town.

One of his roles was that of Dr. John Gideon during the final season of the television medical drama St. Elsewhere. Cox's character was famously mooned by Dr. Donald Westphall (Ed Flanders) at the end of the third episode of season six. In 1990, he co-starred as Los Angeles Police Chief Roger Kendrick in the short-lived Cop Rock, bearing a striking physical resemblance to the real-world incumbent, Chief Daryl Gates.

Cox made a notable appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation as the efficient but impersonal Captain Edward Jellico in the two-part episode "Chain of Command". He has also played Henry Mason, the father of Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross) on Desperate Housewives.

He also had a role in The Starter Wife. He played Pappy McCallister, the husband of Molly Kagan's best friend Joan.

Cox has also done some occasional animation work, lending his voice to the Tyrusian deserter Doc in Invasion America, and Senator McMillan in Todd McFarlane's Spawn.