William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor, from a well-known acting family.
He appeared in several
notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including King Rat, The
Servant, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Performance, before quitting the
screen for several years to be an evangelical Christian. He has since
appeared in a wide range of film and TV productions.
Fox was born
in London, the son of theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela
Worthington. He is the brother of actor Edward Fox and the film producer
Robert Fox. His maternal grandfather was playwright Frederick Lonsdale.
Like several members of the Fox family, he attended Harrow School.
After leaving Harrow, Fox took a short service commission in the
Coldstream Guards.
Fox first appeared on film in The Miniver
Story in 1950. His early screen appearances, both in film and TV, were
made under his birth name, William Fox.
In 1962, he was working
in a bank when Tony Richardson offered him a minor role in the film The
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Fox's father attempted to forbid
this, claiming that his son had no talent for acting and that it would
disrupt his life for him to give up his job in the bank; nevertheless,
Fox took the part.
During the 1960s, Fox gained popularity. In
1964, he won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role in
The Servant (1963).
More information: BFI
On 16 June 1965, Ken Annakin's Those
Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines was released. In this British
period comedy film, Fox is featured among an international ensemble cast
including Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, Terry-Thomas, Red
Skelton, Benny Hill, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Gert Fröbe and Alberto Sordi.
The film, revolving around the craze of early aviation circa 1910, is
about a pompous newspaper magnate (Morley) who is convinced by his
daughter (Miles) and fiancé (Fox), a young army officer, and they
organize an air race from London to Paris, where he decides to race.
A
large sum of money is offered to the winner, attracting a variety of
characters to participate. The film received positive reviews, being
described as funny, colourful and clever, and as capturing the early
enthusiasm for aviation. It was treated as a major production, one of
only three full-length 70 mm Todd-AO Fox releases in 1965 with an
intermission and musical interlude part of the original screenings.
Because of the Todd-AO process, the film was an exclusive roadshow
feature initially shown in deluxe Cinerama venues, where customers
needed reserved seats purchased ahead of time.
Audience
reaction, both in first release and even today, is nearly universal in
assessing the film as one of the classic aviation films.
Some
of the other films he acted in during this time are King Rat (1965), The
Chase (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Isadora (1968), and
Performance (1970).
After finishing work on Performance (1970),
Fox suspended his acting career. Released in 1970, the film co-starring
James Fox and Mick Jagger was deemed so outrageous that critics at a
preview screening walked out, with one film executive's wife reportedly
throwing up in the cinema.
More information: The Guardian
In a 2008 interview, he said: It was
just part of my journey... I think my journey was to spend awhile away
from acting. And I never lost contact with it -watching movies, reading
about it ... so I didn't feel I missed it.
He became an
evangelical Christian, working with the Navigators and devoting himself
to the ministry. During this time, the only film in which Fox appeared
was No Longer Alone (1976), the story of Joan Winmill Brown, a suicidal
woman who was led to faith in Jesus Christ by Ruth Bell Graham.
After
an absence from acting of several years, in 1981 Fox appeared on TV in
the Play for Today Country by Trevor Griffiths, a comedy drama set
against the 1945 UK parliamentary elections. On film, he starred in
Stephen Poliakoff's Runners (1983), A Passage to India (1984), and
Comrades (1986). He was notable as Anthony Blunt in the acclaimed BBC
play by Alan Bennett, A Question of Attribution (1992). He also
portrayed the character of Lord Holmes in Patriot Games (1992), as well
as Colonel Ferguson in Farewell to the King and the Nazi-sympathising
aristocrat Lord Darlington in The Remains of the Day (1993).
More
recently he has appeared in the 2000 film Sexy Beast, the 2001
adaptation of The Lost World as Prof. Leo Summerlee, Agatha Christie's
Poirot-Death on the Nile (2004) as Colonel Race and Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory (2005) playing Mr. Salt, Veruca Salt's father. He
appeared in the Doctor Who audio drama Shada, and in 2007, he
guest-starred in the British television crime series Waking the Dead. He
also appeared opposite his son Laurence Fox in Allegory of Love, an
episode in the third series of Lewis. He was part of the cast of
Sherlock Holmes, as Sir Thomas, leading member of a freemason-like
secret society.
In 2010, he filmed Cleanskin, a terrorist
thriller directed by Hadi Hajaig, and in 2011 he played King George V in
Madonna's film W.E.
More information: Bing
Before that, I had been completely involved
in the more bawdy side of the film business.
But after that, everything changed.
James Fox
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