Born into a theatrical family, his mother was an actress; his father
a theatrical agent, James Fox was trained at the Central School of Speech
and Drama. He made his film debut as a child star in The Miniver Story
(1950), using his own name, William Fox. He followed this with an appearance
in Ealing’s The Magnet
(1950), about a fun-loving young boy and his good-luck token. He soon
gave up acting to finish school. After completing compulsory Military
Service from 1959 to 1961, Fox changed his first name to James. He returned
to acting as a runner in Tony Richardson’s
angry drama The Loneliness
of the Long Distance Runner (1962), which starred Tom
Courtenay as a rebellious youth. Fox soon made his mark alongside
Dirk Bogarde in Joseph
Losey’s Pinter-scripted psychological class drama The
Servant (1963). Later that same period he headlined an international
cast in the slapstick comedy extravaganza Those
Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), and made a small
number of distinguished films in Hollywood; including the PoW drama
King Rat (1965) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967).
Fox culminated the decade in Nicholas
Roeg's cult classic Performance (1970), turning in a starring role
as a gangster sucked into the bohemian lifestyle of jaded rock-star
Mick Jagger. He departed the acting world on completion of Performance
to pursue Christian vocational work with the missionary group, the Navigators
– he returned in the late 1970s. Fox noticeably returned to mainstream
cinema in the 1980s, appearing in David
Lean’s A Passage
to India (1984), Julien Temple’s musical Absolute Beginners (1986)
and spy thriller The Whistle Blower (1986). Fox continued to be more
prolific than ever, often playing aged English aristocrats in films,
including The Russia House (1990), the rescued Lord Holmes in Patriot
Games (1992), lord of the manor in The
Remains of the Day (1993) and as Hugh Grant’s
auction house boss in the comedy Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). Fox made a
return to the gangster genre as the corrupt aristocrat in Jonathan
Glazer’s Sexy
Beast (2000).
