Ronny Cox Bio
Daniel Ronald Cox (born July 23, 1938), known professionally as Ronny Cox, is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and storyteller. Born in the mountain town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, he has built a long and varied career across film, television, and live performance that began in 1972 with the film Deliverance. He is best known for his roles in Beverly Hills Cop, RoboCop, and Total Recall, and for a steady stream of television work on shows such as St. Elsewhere, Desperate Housewives, and Star Trek.
Beyond acting, Cox is a working musician and storyteller, performing more than 100 shows a year at festivals and theaters while also leading an annual tour to Ireland. With a career now spanning more than five decades, he remains active in film, television, and music, drawing on the same commanding presence that first brought him to the screen in the early 1970s.
Early Life and Background
Daniel Ronald Cox was born on July 23, 1938, in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, the third of five children. His mother was Lounette Rucker Cox, and his father was Bob P. Cox, a carpenter who also worked at a dairy. Cox grew up in Portales, New Mexico, a small community in the eastern part of the state that would later play a role in his early musical life.
From an early age, Cox was drawn to performance. He taught himself to play the guitar, a skill that would later help him land his first major film role. The small-town environment of eastern New Mexico, combined with regular family life, gave him a grounded upbringing that contrasted with the Hollywood careers many of his classmates would later pursue.
Path to Acting
Cox attended Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, where he graduated in 1963 with a double major in theater and speech correction. His time at the university gave him a formal foundation in stagecraft, voice work, and performance, and it also placed him in a community where country and folk music were a regular part of life. These two threads, acting and music, would go on to define the rest of his career.
After college, Cox spent several years working in regional and repertory theater while continuing to play music on the side. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, he had developed the kind of confident, grounded screen presence that casting directors look for in leading men and authority figures. That preparation led directly to his casting in the 1972 film Deliverance, a movie that would change the course of his life.
Ronny Cox Career
Early Career (1972–1983)
Ronny Cox made his film debut in the 1972 motion picture Deliverance, directed by John Boorman. In one of the film’s most memorable sequences, he plays the guitar piece “Dueling Banjos” with banjo player Billy Redden, a scene for which Cox was hired largely because he could actually play the instrument. The role introduced him to audiences and established him as a performer with both acting ability and genuine musical skill.
Following Deliverance, Cox built a steady career across film and television. He starred in the short-lived 1974 family series Apple’s Way, created by Earl Hamner, the mind behind The Waltons. He took on the role of Mr. Webb in a television production of Our Town and appeared in the 1977 anthology series Quinn Martin’s Tales of the Unexpected. These early projects helped him transition from film debut to working character actor.
Breakthrough (1984–1990)
Cox’s first big-budget film role came in 1984 when he was cast as Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil in Beverly Hills Cop, starring opposite Eddie Murphy. The film was a major box-office success, and Cox returned to the role in the 1987 sequel Beverly Hills Cop II. That same year, he took a very different part, playing the corporate villain Richard “Dick” Jones in Paul Verhoeven’s science fiction classic RoboCop. The two back-to-back hits made him one of the most recognizable character actors of the decade.
During this period, Cox also played Dr. John Gideon during the final season of the television medical drama St. Elsewhere, further cementing his presence on the small screen. He appeared as a mayor in the early episodes of Murder, She Wrote’s third season in 1986. In 1990, he co-starred as Los Angeles Police Chief Roger Kendrick in the short-lived series Cop Rock and, in the same year, played the antagonistic Mars administrator Vilos Cohaagen in the science fiction action film Total Recall.
On television, Cox guest-starred in the two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Chain of Command” as Captain Edward Jellico, a role he would reprise decades later in Star Trek: Prodigy starting in 2022. He also played Henry Mason, the father of Bree Van de Kamp, on Desperate Housewives, and appeared in other notable series of the period.
Notable Works and Milestones
Cox’s signature films remain Deliverance, Beverly Hills Cop, RoboCop, and Total Recall, a run of four very different characters that showcased his range. He has portrayed a fictional U.S. President in Murder at 1600, John Ramsey in the TV film Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, and Senator/Vice President Robert Kinsey in Stargate SG-1, demonstrating his gift for authority figures. In 2012, he published an autobiography recounting his experiences making Deliverance, marking another milestone in a career defined by reinvention.
Ronny Cox Award Nominations
Ronny Cox’s career has been recognized across film, television, and music, though specific high-profile acting nominations are not extensively documented in available sources. His work as a musician has earned him recognition from New Mexico-based institutions, including a 2021 New Mexico Music Awards honor for his song “Portales” from the live album Live at the Kitchen Sink. Detailed counts of acting nominations across his decades-long career are not available with full certainty, and so specific totals are not listed here.
Ronny Cox Awards Won
On November 2, 2019, Ronny Cox was inducted into the New Mexico Music Hall of Fame, honoring his long-standing contributions as a singer, songwriter, and storyteller in his home state. In 2021, he won the New Mexico Music Awards Best Folk Music Award for his song “Portales,” featured on the album Live at the Kitchen Sink, recorded at The Kitchen Sink Recording Studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. These recognitions reflect the dual nature of his career, which spans screen performance and live musical storytelling.
Ronny Cox Family
Ronny Cox was born to Bob P. Cox, a carpenter who also worked at a dairy, and Lounette Rucker Cox. He was the third of five children and grew up in Portales, New Mexico, where the family settled after his birth in Cloudcroft.
Cox met his wife, Mary Cox, when she was 11 and he was 14, and they began dating when she was 15 and he was 18. They married in 1960 and had two sons. Mary Cox died in 2006, fifty years to the day of their first date, a loss Cox has spoken about publicly in his musical performances. Cox is the widower of Mary Cox and has continued to honor her memory through his storytelling and live shows.
Personal Life
Ronny Cox was married to Mary Cox from 1960 until her death in 2006, and the two had two sons together. Their long partnership, which began in childhood and adolescence, is a story Cox often shares from the stage during his music performances.
In recent decades, Cox has split much of his time between acting and live music. He has said that music now comes first in his life, and he turns down roughly nine out of every ten acting roles he is offered so that he can perform more than 100 shows a year at festivals and theaters, often accompanied by his band. He also leads a regular musical tour to Ireland, further reflecting his deep commitment to life as a touring artist.