Ronny Cox is persuasive as the man entitled to give orders, and more unsettling when that entitlement goes unchecked. We rate him most highly when he plays ruthlessness without advertising it, as Paul Verhoeven allows him to do in RoboCop.
Fi1m perspective
Ronny Cox can make giving an order seem reasonable. That becomes unnerving when he plays Dick Jones, the scheming executive in RoboCop (1987), with so little need to advertise his malice. We found him frightening because his ruthlessness comes from a man who seems satisfied that he is behaving properly. Cox is especially good at letting us see the danger without suggesting that the character sees it too.
That effect depends partly on how comfortably he can play a decent man. His film debut as Drew Ballinger in Deliverance (1972) put his guitar skills to use in the 'Dueling Banjos' sequence, before a run of sympathetic and authoritative parts. In Beverly Hills Cop (1984), he is Lieutenant Bogomil, a sympathetic police officer in Martin Brest's patchy police comedy. Brest gives Eddie Murphy useful company, Cox included, but the familiar crime plotting keeps interrupting the pleasure of Murphy's bluffing. We would not recommend the film on Cox's account alone.
With RoboCop, the casting changed: Dick Jones opened the way to more prominent villains, including Vilos Cohaagen in Total Recall (1990). Paul Verhoeven directed both, and RoboCop makes especially good use of Cox's understated menace. His restraint helps the corporate satire because Jones remains credible as an executive even when his ruthlessness is apparent. A more visibly villainous performance would make it easier to treat him as an exception rather than a man his employers might find useful.
The reservation is repetition: police, military and corporate authority have occupied a large part of his screen work. Cox makes that casting understandable, though familiarity can mean we start judging the man before the performance has had time to persuade us. His sympathetic Bogomil is worth remembering when another commanding figure appears. For the more disturbing use of those gifts, start with RoboCop, with a serious warning about the violence.
Biography
Ronny Cox is an American actor, singer and songwriter. Born Daniel Ronald Cox on 23 July 1938 in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, he graduated from Eastern New Mexico University and made his film debut in Deliverance (1972).
He is known for his roles as Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil in Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and its 1987 sequel, as corporate executive Dick Jones in RoboCop (1987), and as administrator Vilos Cohaagen in Total Recall (1990). Cox has also appeared in numerous television series, including recurring roles on St. Elsewhere and Stargate SG-1.
Alongside acting, Cox maintains a career as a musician and storyteller, touring regularly and performing at folk festivals. He was inducted into the New Mexico Music Hall of Fame.
