Brian Cox – a consummate actor

The indefatigable actor Brian Cox, born two weeks before Donald Trump, is still going full tilt. He’s just off stage playing the 18th-century economist Adam Smith; has this year released several films, plus his own directorial debut of Glenrothan with Alan Cummings, as well bizarrely as fronting a reality show  007: Road to a Million; continued his long-running radio series McLevy; and was planning a touring one-man show called It’s All About Me! Until his family suggested he might be overdoing it.

 In a decades-long career he’s played Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso, Titus Andronicus, Stalin, Göring, Trotsky, J Edgar Hoover, King Lear and Hannibal Lecter but it was Logan Roy in the television Succession which brought him international recognition. It was popular with critics and award-givers, less so with audiences, but was a publicity juggernaut

 Cox, born 1 June 1946, had a fractured upbringing with his father dying when he was eight, and his mother, often hospitalised with mental-health problems. One of his three elder sisters looked out for him but he often slept at the local theatre where he started work at 14.

 He says: “The irony was, I was very free. I had no parents and nobody to tell me what to do, so I just got on with it. I had to make up my own rules, and I think that’s why I have the sort of drive that I have, because I realised there was nobody around to help me. It was very exciting – I had a great time as a kid.”

  He has a much travelled and communicative 9^th house Gemini Sun, Mercury, Uranus sextile a heavyweight 11^th house Pluto and Mars in Leo. His 10^th house Cancer Moon conjunct Venus suits him for a public career and gives him a modicum of charm to offset his bombastic Mars in Leo. His Moon squares a 1^st house Neptune and his Venus squares Jupiter so he will have an actor’s chameleon-like ability to inhabit different characters. His Jupiter is trine his Midheaven and North Node and sextile Mars for high-vitality and luck. His Saturn in Cancer in his 10^th makes him a good organiser; though in square to Jupiter he will be more prone to ups and downs than his robust remarks suggest.

  He has Trump’s mouthiness, perhaps boosted by his Mars in Leo, and Gemini Mercury sextile Pluto, but despite his Logan Roy success in Succession dislikes Trump and the wealthy, being a resolute socialist.

 At the recent Edinburgh Book Festival he was letting loose about Mel Gibson’s Braveheart movie in which he played the uncle of the 14^th Century William Wallace who fought for Scotland’s independence. He described it as a “lie”,  reinforcing the general view that it had been historically inaccurate. Despite which it won multiple awards and boosted the Scottish nationalist cause.

  He signed off a recent interview with a memorably Mars-in-Leo salvo: “People snipe at me but I’m too old, too tired and too f—ing talented to care.”

  His actor’s 15th Harmonic is certainly outstanding with a New Moon in a T square to Venus and Saturn; Jupiter, Neptune Mercury tied together in another T square; the Midheaven boosted by Jupiter and Pluto; plus a strained yod of Mars sextile Mercury inconjunct Pluto.

 He has been married three times, the last since 2002 and has several children.

 With Saturn rising above his Descendant and an extra-successful Jupiter moving through his career 10^th for the next year he does not look like slowing down much. Though tr Saturn Neptune square his Moon may give him pause for thought.