# James Fox

James William Fox (born William Fox; 19 May 1939) is an English actor known for his work in film and television. Fox's career began in the 1960s through roles in films such as The Servant and Performance. He is also known for his roles in A Passage to India in 1984 and The Remains of the Day in 1993.
In the 1970s, Fox took a break from acting to focus on personal and spiritual matters, returning to acting in the early 1980s. Over time, he built a reputation for playing a variety of roles, including upper-class figures and more serious characters. He is a member of the Fox family of actors.

## Early life

Fox was born on 19 May 1939 in London, the second son of theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela Worthington. His elder brother is actor Edward Fox and his younger brother is film producer Robert Fox. His maternal grandfather was playwright Frederick Lonsdale.

## Career
### Early career

Fox first appeared on film as eleven-year-old Toby Miniver in The Miniver Story in 1950. His early screen appearances, both in film and television, were made under his birth name, William Fox.
He appeared in the film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). Fox's father purportedly attempted to forbid this, fearing his son would lose his job in the bank; nevertheless, Fox took the part.
In 1964, Fox won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for The Servant (1963), working alongside Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, and Wendy Craig.
On 16 June 1965, Ken Annakin's period aviation film 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. 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).

### Spiritual life and break from acting

After finishing work on Performance (released 1970, but shot in 1968), Fox suspended his acting career. The film, which starred Fox and Mick Jagger, was deemed so outrageous (at the time) that critics at a preview screening walked out, with one film executive's wife reportedly throwing up in the cinema.
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 (1976), 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 from acting of several years, in 1981 Fox appeared on television 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 played Anthony Blunt in the 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 (1989) and the Nazi-sympathising aristocrat Lord Darlington in The Remains of the Day (1993).
He has since 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 (2009), 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 the Madonna written and directed film W.E.
In 2013, he played a lead role alongside Natalie Dormer, in the movie A Long Way From Home.

## Personal life

Fox married Mary Elizabeth Piper in September 1973, with whom he has five children, including Laurence and Jack. Piper died at their home on 19 April 2020.
Through his daughter Lydia, his son-in-law is actor Richard Ayoade. His former daughter-in-law is actress Billie Piper, who was married to his son Laurence from 2007 to 2016.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1950 | The Miniver Story | Toby Miniver | |
| 1950 | The Magnet | Johnny Brent | |
| 1962 | The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner | Gunthorpe | |
| 1963 | Tamahine | Oliver | |
| 1963 | The Servant | Tony | |
| 1965 | King Rat | Flight Lieutenant Peter Marlowe | |
| 1965 | Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines | Richard Mays | |
| 1966 | The Chase | Jason 'Jake' Rogers | |
| 1967 | Thoroughly Modern Millie | Jimmy Smith | |
| 1967 | Arabella | Giorgio | |
| 1968 | Duffy | Stephane Calvert | |
| 1968 | Isadora | Gordon Craig | |
| 1970 | Performance | Chas Devlin | |
| 1983 | Runners | Tom Lindsay | |
| 1984 | Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes | Lord Charles Esker | |
| 1984 | A Passage to India | Cyril Fielding | |
| 1986 | Absolute Beginners | Henley of Mayfair, Dressmaker to the Queen | |
| 1986 | The Whistle Blower | Lord | |
| 1986 | Comrades | Governor William Norfolk | |
| 1987 | High Season | Patrick | |
| 1989 | Farewell to the King | Colonel Ferguson | |
| 1989 | 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 | Aleksei Aleksandrovich Karenin | |
| 1997 | Never Ever | Arthur Trevane | |
| 1998 | Shadow Run | Landon-Higgins | |
| 1998 | Jinnah | Mountbatten | |
| 1999 | Mickey Blue Eyes | Philip Cromwell | |
| 2000 | Up at the Villa | Sir Edgar Swift | |
| 2000 | Sexy Beast | Harry | |
| 2000 | The Golden Bowl | Colonel Bob Assingham | |
| 2001 | Lover's Prayer | Old Vladimir | Voice |
| 2001 | The Mystic Masseur | Mr. Stewart | |
| 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 | |
| 2010 | Wide Blue Yonder | George | |
| 2011 | W.E. | King George V | |
| 2012 | Cleanskin | Scott Catesby | |
| 2013 | A Long Way From Home | Joseph | |
| 2013 | The Double | The Colonel | |
| 2013 | Effie Gray | Sir Charles Eastlake | |
| 2018 | Surviving Christmas with the Relatives | Uncle John | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1959 | Armchair Theatre | Jay Minton | Episode: Light from a Star |
| 1981 | Play for Today | Philip Carlion | Episode: Country |
| 1982 | Nancy Astor | Waldorf Astor | TV Mini-series |
| 1983 | Anna Pavlova | Victor Dandré | |
| 1983 | The Road to 1984 | George Orwell | TV movie |
| 1989 | She's Been Away | Hugh Ambrose | TV movie |
| 1990 | Never Come Back | Foster | TV Mini-series |
| 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 |
| 1994 | Doomsday Gun | Sir James Whittington | TV movie |
| 1994 | The Old Curiosity Shop | The Single Gentleman | TV Mini-series |
| 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 | |
| 2001 | The Lost World | Prof. Leo Summerlee | TV movie |
| 2002 | The Falklands Play | Lord Carrington KCMG MC PC (Foreign Secretary) | |
| 2003 | Cambridge Spies | Lord Halifax | TV Mini-series |
| 2003 | Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale | Jonas Collin | TV movie |
| 2004 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Colonel Race | Episode: Death on the Nile |
| 2005 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Colonel Arthur Bantry | Episode: The Body in the Library |
| 2005 | Colditz | Lt. Colonel Jimmy Fordham | TV Mini-series |
| 2005 | 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 |
| 2009 | Margaret | Charles Powell | TV movie |
| 2009 | Red Riding 1980 | Philip Evans | 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 | The Assistant | 6 episodes |
| 2013 | The Great Train Robbery | Henry Brooke | TV movie |
| 2013 | Downton Abbey | Lord Aysgarth | Episode: The London Season |
| 2014 | Unknown Heart [fr] | Ludlow | |
| 2014 | 1864 | Lord Palmerston | Miniseries |
| 2015 | Death in Paradise | Martin Goodman | 2 episodes |
| 2015 | London Spy | James | Episode: Blue |