Early years and education

The third of five children of actor James Fox and his wife Mary Elizabeth Piper, His father James was the son of Major Robin Fox, theatrical agent, who married Angela Muriel Darita Worthington, a natural daughter of Frederick Lonsdale. Laurence Fox was born in 1978 in Yorkshire. At the age of thirteen he entered Harrow School where, according to him, he was "shy around women, sensitive and a bit naïve". Although he made friends and liked the drama teacher, he hated the school's strict regimen and felt despised and out of place among pupils with titles and wealth. Constantly in trouble for smoking, fighting, going into town and seeing girls, he was eventually expelled a few weeks before his A-levels. According to him, "It was something to do with a girl at a dance. I went back to take the exams, but I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone." With hindsight, Fox has said that his experience at Harrow enabled him to portray "toffs" - the upper-class boys looking down on him and whom he disliked - with much insight and cynicism.

Despite doing well in his A-level examinations, because of his report from Harrow he was unable to obtain a place at any university. After working as a gardener for two years, and a stint as an office worker which he loathed, he discovered that he enjoyed acting and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). During his time there he appeared in numerous theatre productions, including the lead roles of Gregers Werle in Ibsen's The Wild Duck, Marcus Andronicus in Titus Andronicus, and Stephen Daedalus in an adaptation of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. However, he was disappointed to find that he was treated "like a nonce" for being an Old Harrovian. He also made himself more unpopular by being outspoken and taking on roles in his second and third years despite the practice being forbidden by school policy. One of these was his first break into film - the 2001 horror-thriller The Hole. Fox feels that in landing the role his name "probably helped - it's a combination of timing, luck and contacts". Nonetheless, "he name opens some doors, but then you have to show you can do the job".

Career

Fox, who graduated from RADA on 1 July 2001, followed up The Hole by appearing in Robert Altman's 2001 Academy Award-winning film Gosford Park. He then donned uniforms in a slew of film and television features, including roles as a German airman in Island at War (2004), an SS officer in The Last Drop (2005), and as British soldiers in the 2002 films Deathwatch and Ultimate Force, and in Colditz (2005). In the last made-for-television film, Fox played Capt. Tom Willis who, after an unsuccessful attempt to break out of a prisoner-of-war camp, is brought to Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle, one of the most infamous German POW camps for officers in World War II. Actor Kevin Whately caught Fox's performance in the last ten minutes of the film, which he characterised as "this young English boy going bonkers and wandering out to be shot", and thought "He's interesting." The next day, at a lunch meeting with "all the powers that be" regarding a new project, Whately mentioned that Fox "would be worth taking a look at".

As a result, Fox was cast in the ITV detective drama Lewis as Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, a Cambridge-educated former trainee priest who becomes the partner of Detective Inspector Robert Lewis, played by Whately. The pilot of this spin-off from Inspector Morse (1987-2000), was ITV's highest rated drama of 2006.

Real people that Fox has portrayed include Prince Charles, in Whatever Love Means (2005); Wisley, one of Jane Austen's suitors, in Becoming Jane (2007); and Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor of England in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, also released in 2007. In addition, in that year Fox was seen on ITV as Cecil Vyse in Andrew Davies' adaptation of A Room with a View based on E.M. Forster's 1908 novel. He has expressed a desire to appear in a western, and to star as James Bond - the closest he got to the latter was losing the role of villain Gustav Graves in Die Another Day (2002) to Toby Stephens.

On stage, Fox appeared in Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw at the Strand Theatre (now the Novello Theatre) in London in 2002, and John Ford's 17th-century play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore in 2005. Between 2006 and 2007 he starred in Treats by Christopher Hampton with his future wife, Billie Piper. In April 2007, Fox lost his temper with a paparazzi photographer outside the Garrick Theatre in London where he was performing in Treats and was arrested for assault. He was later released after receiving a police caution. Newspaper reports stated that the caution would remain on his record for three years and might prevent his obtaining a visa to perform in the US. In 2013, Fox played Guy Haines in Strangers on a Train at London's Gielgud Theatre. On 9 May 2015 he portrayed a wartime soldier composing a letter at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1.

When filming, Fox often plays the jester to amuse the cast and crew. He has said, "I'd just rather have a good time than I would be Daniel Day-Lewis. There ain't no method to my acting."

In March 2016 Laurence Fox apologised for swearing at a member of the audience who had been muttering audibly in the front row during a performance of The Patriotic Traitor at London's Park Theatre on 8 March. The audience saw Fox step out of character - that of French statesman Charles de Gaulle - and chastise the heckler with robust language. "If someone is hell-bent on heckling, they are ruining it for everybody," he explained to Sarah Montague on the Today programme on 10 March 2016. "It becomes an un-performable play, the play stops at that moment."

Personal life

Fox dated British actress Billie Piper in 2006 while they performed together in the stage play Treats. On 31 December 2007 Fox married Piper in the 12th century parish church of St. Mary's in Easebourne, West Sussex. During a 21 February 2008 interview on ITV breakfast show GMTV, Fox revealed that after a "drunken lunch" during their honeymoon in Mexico he and Piper got matching tattoos to celebrate their marriage. His tattoo, on his forearm, reads "Mrs Fox 31 December 2007", while hers states "Mr Fox". Fox and Piper live in a country cottage in the market town of Midhurst in West Sussex. In March 2008 it was reported that Piper had expressed to family and friends a desire to adopt children as well as to have children of her own with Fox. On 27 April 2008 The Sun, quoting an unnamed source, announced that Piper was three months' pregnant and that she and Fox were "absolutely over the moon". On 21 October 2008, Piper gave birth to a son, Winston James Fox, by emergency Caesarean section. Piper gave birth to their second son, Eugene Pip, on 5 April 2012. On 24th March 2016, Fox announced on his Facebook page that the pair had split after 8 years of marriage. He stated that no third party was involved in the separation. On 12 May 2016, it was announced that Fox and Piper had divorced after over 8 years of marriage.

Fox's siblings are Tom (born 1975), Robin (1976), Lydia (1979), and Jack (1985); Lydia Fox is herself an actress. His uncles are the actor Edward Fox and the theatrical and film producer Robert Fox. The actors Emilia Fox and Freddie Fox are his first cousins, being the children of Edward Fox. Fox is also Richard Ayoade's brother-in-law.

Filmography

Film

Year(s) of appearance	Film	Role	Awards and nominations
2001	The Hole	Geoff Bingham
2001	Gosford Park	Lord Rupert Standish
2002	Deathwatch	Capt. Bramwell Jennings
2003	Al sur de Granada (South from Granada)	Ralph Partridge
2007	Becoming Jane	Mr. Wisley
2007	Elizabeth: The Golden Age	Sir Christopher Hatton
2011	W.E.	Bertie

Television

Year(s) of appearance	Film or series	Role	Awards and nominations
2002 (2 episodes)	Ultimate Force (2002-2006) "Something to Do with Justice" "Natural Selection"	Cpl. Mick Sharp
2003 (1 episode)	Foyle's War (2002-present) "War Games"	Simon Walker
2004	Island at War	Airman Bernhardt Tellemann
2004	AD/BC: A Rock Opera	Townsfolk
2005	Colditz	Capt. Tom Willis
2005	The Last Drop	SS Maj. Kessler
2005 (1 episode)	Jericho "The Killing of Johnny Swan"	Peter Bridgewater
2005 (2 episodes)	Egypt "The Search for Tutankhamun" "The Curse of Tutankhamun"	Leonard
2005	Whatever Love Means	Charles, Prince of Wales
2006-2015	Lewis	D.S. James Hathaway
2006	Agatha Christie's Marple: The Sittaford Mystery	James Pearson
2007	A Room with a View	Cecil Vyse
2008	Wired	Philip Manningham
2011	Fast Freddie, The Widow and Me	Jonathan Donald
2015	Bear Grylls: Mission Survive	Himself, contestant

Theatre

Year(s) of appearance	Production	Role	Awards and nominations
19-28 October 2000	Kit's Play by Howard Brenton Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre, London, England	The DG/Earl of Northumberland
	The Wild Duck (1884) by Henrik Ibsen	Gregers Werle
	Titus Andronicus (1584 - early 1590s) by William Shakespeare	Marcus Andronicus
	Ulysses based on the James Joyce novel first published in its entirety in 1922	Stephen Daedalus
	The Wild Goose Chase (1652) by John Fletcher	Belleur
	The Provoked Wife (17th century) by John Vanbrugh	Constant
8-17 February 2001	Hobson's Choice (first performed 1916) by Harold Brighouse Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre, London, England	Fred Beanstock
2002	Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) by George Bernard Shaw Strand Theatre, London, England	Frank Gardner
2005	'Tis Pity She's a Whore (first performed 1629-1633) by John Ford Southwark Playhouse, London, England; and United Kingdom tour	Soranzo
2006-2007	Treats (1975) by Christopher Hampton Garrick Theatre, Richmond Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and Southwark Playhouse, London, England	Patrick
2012	Our Boys (1993) by Jonathan Guy Lewis Duchess Theatre, London, England	Joe
2013-2014	Strangers on a Train Gielgud Theatre, London, England	Guy Haines
2016	The Patriotic Traitor Park Theatre, London, England	Charles de Gaulle

Discography

Albums

• Sorry for My Words (2013).
• Holding Patterns (2016)

Singles

• "Gunfight" (2012)
• "So Be Damned" (2013).
• "Headlong" (2015)
• "Rise Again" (2016)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]