Council Biography

Alex Cox

Alex Cox was born in Liverpool, England, in 1954. He studied at Worcester College, Oxford, Bristol and UCLA. He directed Edge City, AKA Sleep is for Sissies, a 40-minute UCLA thesis film, in 1980.

He wrote and directed Repo Man in 1983. It opened at the Berlin Film Festival the following year.

He co-wrote Sid and Nancy with Abbe Wool in 1984 and directed it in 1985 with Chloe Webb as Nancy Spungen and then-unknown British stage actor Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious. The film played at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1986, he directed Walker in Nicaragua and Tucson, Ariz., from a script by Rudy Wurlitzer. It starred Ed Harris, Peter Boyle, Richard Masur, and Marlee Matlin.

From 1987 to 1994, he presented the BBC TV series Moviedrome.

In 1991, he directed El Patrullero (Highway Patrolman) in Mexico, from Lorenzo O'Brien's script. Roberto Sosa received the Best Actor award for El Patrullero at San Sebastian/Donostia.

In 1996, he completed Death and the Compass, a Mexican/British/Japanese co-production based on the short story by Jorge Luis Borges. The film featured Peter Boyle, Christopher Eccleston, and Miguel Sandoval.

In 1997 he formed Exterminating Angel Productions with Tod Davies. The company's first feature, Three Businessmen (1998), was shot in four weeks in five countries, beginning in Cox's native Liverpool. It starred Miguel Sandoval, Bob Wisdom and Isabel Ampudia.

Cox has also acted in various films, including Backtrack, directed by Dennis Hopper, Dead Beat, directed by Adam Dubov, Floundering, directed by Peter McCarthy, La Reina de la Noche, directed by Arturo Ripstein, and Perdita Durango, directed by Alex de la Iglesia.