Daniel Ronald "Ronny" Cox is a character actor, singer/songwriter, and guitarist.
Ronny Cox tours regularly with a band, performing at theatres and folk music festivals. On September 10, 1960, he married Mary Cox. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1963 with a double major in theater and speech correction.
As an actor, he is probably best known for his debut performance as Drew Ballinger in the acclaimed 1972 film Deliverance in which he plays the instrumental "Dueling Banjos" on his guitar with a mentally retarded banjo-playing mountain boy named Lonnie, played by child actor Billy Redden.
I much prefer playing the bad guys. I think they are always the most interesting characters. I liken it to painting: if you're playing the good guy, you get three colors: red, white and blue. But if you're the bad guy, you get the whole palette." (Total Recall Photo/NCM)
Cox has also appeared as Lieutenant/Captain/Chief of Police Andrew Bogomil in Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop II, Richard "Dick" Jones in RoboCop, Mars Administrator Vilos Cohaagen in Total Recall, and Senator/Vice-President Robert Kinsey in Stargate SG-1. Cox also portrayed John Ramsey in the 2000 TV movie Perfect Murder, Perfect Town.
From 1974-1975 Cox starred in the short-lived CBS family-oriented dramatic series entitled Apple's Way created by Earl Hamner, who created The Waltons. He appeared as "Mr. Webb" in a television production of Our Town.
One of his most memorable roles was that of Dr. John Gideon during the final season of the television medical drama St. Elsewhere. Cox also made an appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Henry Mason, the father of Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross) on Desperate Housewives and as Pappy McCallister in The Starter Wife.
A few of the many actors Cox has worked with: Eddie Murphy, Sandra Bullock, Ned Beatty, Ben Affleck, Burt Reynolds, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jon Voight, Sharon Stone, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Teri Hatcher, Brent Spiner...
I found out a long time ago that if I didn't have a good story for a song, I could just make one up! Now it seems over half the stories in my show are made up. The funny thing is, those seem to be the ones that resonate the most with the audiences." (Photo/ronnycox.com)
Last known Cox released six albums, they include a collection of Mickey Newbury songs, he tours when he can and has performed on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Mountain Stage." And over the past five or six years, he's directed most of his energy toward writing and performing, declining acting jobs that might interfere. Cox has been known to say that he does love acting, but he loves his music even more.
In his latest album "Songs With Repercussions", as well as "How I Love Them Old Songs", "At The Sebastiani", "Ronny Cox Live", "Cowboy Savant" and "Acoustic Eclectricity", Ronny Cox showcases a wonderful acoustic mix of folk, western, jazzy-bluesy and just plain corn ball stuff. His next tour to Ireland will be June 15-24, 2010. - Tour Ireland with Ronny!
