Early life

Fox was born in London, to theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela Worthington. Like several members of the Fox family, he was educated at Harrow School. He is the brother of the actor Edward Fox and the film producer Robert Fox. His mother's father was the playwright Frederick Lonsdale. Like his brother Edward, after leaving Harrow, Fox took a short service commission in the Coldstream Guards.

Career

Early career

Fox first appeared on film in The Miniver Story in 1950. His other early film appearances were made under his birth name, William Fox.

In 1962, Fox 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, but nevertheless Fox took the part.

During the 1960s, Fox gained popularity and appeared to be heading for stardom. In 1964, he won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role in The Servant (1963). His roles in films such as Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965), King Rat (1965), The Chase (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Isadora (1968), and Performance (1970), as well as his relationship with actress Sarah Miles, made him a media personality.

Spiritual life and break from acting

After finishing work on Performance (1970), Fox suspended his acting career. The strain of filming, his father's death in January 1971, and smoking the hallucinogen DMT, had led to a nervous breakdown. On his break from acting, Fox has commented that "People think Performance blew my mind... my mind was blown long before that."

He has also said that "Performance gave me doubts about my way of life. Before that I had been completely involved in the more bawdy side of the film business. But after that everything changed."

In a 2008 interview, he said: "It was just part of my journey...I think my journey was to spend a while 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 (1978), the story of Joan Winmill Brown, a suicidal woman who was led to faith in Jesus Christ by Ruth Bell Graham.

Return to acting

After an absence of almost ten years from mainstream cinema, Fox returned to the screen, appearing in Stephen Poliakoff's Runners (1983), A Passage to India (1984), and playing Anthony Blunt in the acclaimed BBC play by Alan Bennett, A Question of Attribution (1992). He also portrayed the character of Colonel Ferguson in Farewell to the King and the pro-German aristocrat Lord Darlington in The Remains of the Day (1993).

More recently, he has appeared in 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.

Personal life

In the 1960s, Fox had a relationship with the actress Sarah Miles.

He married Mary Elizabeth Piper in 1973, with whom he has five children: actors Laurence, Lydia, and Jack Fox, and sons Robin and Thomas. In 2007, Laurence and Lydia married actors Billie Piper and Richard Ayoade, respectively. Fox is grandfather to Laurence's two sons with Piper and Lydia's two daughters by Ayoade. His niece Emilia Fox is also an actress. Both Emilia and James Fox have portrayed roles in BBC's hit TV series Merlin and Fox has guest-starred in his son Laurence's television series Lewis.

In her 2014 book A Story Lately Told, Anjelica Huston references a sexual relationship with Fox when she was a teenager.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	The Miniver Story	Toby Miniver
	The Magnet	Johnny Brent
1962	The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner	Gunthorpe
1963	Tamahine	Oliver
	The Servant	Tony
1965	King Rat	Flight Lieutenant Peter Marlowe
	Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines	Richard Mays
1966	The Chase	Jason 'Jake' Rogers
1967	Thoroughly Modern Millie	Jimmy Smith
	Arabella	Giorgio
1968	Duffy	Stephane Calvert
	Isadora	Gordon Craig
1970	Performance	Chas Devlin
1983	Runners	Tom Lindsay
1984	Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes	Lord Charles Esker
	A Passage to India	Richard Fielding
1986	Absolute Beginners	Henley of Mayfair, Dressmaker to the Queen
	The Whistle Blower	Lord
	Comrades	Governor William Norfolk
1987	High Season	Patrick
1989	Farewell to the King	Colonel Ferguson
	The Mighty Quinn	Thomas Elgin
1990	The Russia House	Ned
1991	Afraid of the Dark	Frank
1992	Patriot Games	Lord William Holmes
1993	The Remains of the Day	Lord Darlington
1997	Anna Karenina	Alexi Alexandrovich Karenin
	Never Ever	Arthur Trevane
1998	Shadow Run	Landon-Higgins
	Jinnah	Mountbatten
1999	Mickey Blue Eyes	Philip Cromwell
2000	Up at the Villa	Sir Edgar Swift
	Sexy Beast	Harry
	The Golden Bowl	Colonel Bob Assingham
2004	The Prince and Me	King Haraald
2005	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Mr. Salt
2007	Mister Lonely	The Pope
2009	Sherlock Holmes	Sir Thomas Rotheram
2011	W.E.	King George V
2012	Cleanskin	Scott Catesby
2013	Effie Gray	Sir Charles Eastlake
	The Double	The Colonel
	A Long Way From Home	Joseph

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Anna Pavlova	Victor Dandré
1992	A Question of Attribution	Sir Anthony Blunt	TV movie
1993	Heart of Darkness	Gosse	TV movie
1994	The Dwelling Place	Lord Fischel	TV mini-series, 3 episodes
1995	The Choir	The Dean, Hugh Cavendish	TV mini-series, 5 episodes
1996	Gulliver's Travels	Dr. Bates	TV mini-series
2001	Armadillo	Sir Simon Sherrifmuir
	The Lost World	Prof. Leo Summerlee	TV movie
2003	Cambridge Spies	Lord Halifax	1 episode
2004	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Colonel Race	Death on the Nile
2005	Agatha Christie's Marple	Colonel Arthur Bantry	The Body in the Library
	Colditz	Lt. Colonel Jimmy Fordham	TV mini-series
	Absolute Power	Gerald Thurnham	Episode: Identity Crisis
2006	Suez: A Very British Crisis	Anthony Eden	TV documentary
2007	Waking the Dead	Dr Bruno Rivelli	Episode: Mask of Sanity
2008	New Tricks	Ian Figgis	Episode: Spare Parts
2009	Lewis	Professor Norman Dearing	Episode: Allegory of Love
	Margaret	Charles Powell	TV movie
	Red Riding 1980	Charles Powell	TV movie
2010	Midsomer Murders	Sir Michael Fielding	Episode: Master Class
2011	Law & Order: UK	Dr. Edward Austen	Episode: The Wrong Man
2012	Merlin	King Rodor	Episode: Another's Sorrow
2013	Utopia	Assistant	6 episodes
	The Great Train Robbery	Henry Brooke	TV movie
	Downton Abbey: The London Season	Lord Aysgarth
2015	Death in Paradise	Martin Goodman	Episode 4.8
	1864	Lord Palmerston
	London Spy	James	Episode 3

[ Source: Wikipedia ]