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Alan Cox

Alan Cox is a British actor whose career moves across film, television and the stage. His best-known screen role remains the teenage Dr. Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), a part that placed him at the centre of an early chapter in the familiar Holmes story. That performance followed another notable youthful role. In the 1982 television adaptation of A Voyage Round My Father, Cox portrayed the young John Mortimer opposite Laurence Olivier. It was an unusually substantial early credit, built around the autobiographical world of Mortimer’s play rather than a conventional young-adult story. Cox’s later film work took him through very different kinds of material. He appeared in An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), followed by Mrs. Dalloway (1997) and The Auteur Theory (1999). In 2011, he co-starred as Cory Beck, a nudist, in the independent comedy Act Naturally. Together, those roles show a career that has not stayed tied to the period adventure of his most widely recognized film. Born in Westminster, London, on August 6, 1970, Cox comes from an acting family. His father is Scottish actor Brian Cox, and his mother is actress Caroline Burt. He was educated at St Paul’s School in London. He also has a sister, Margaret, and two half-brothers, Orson and Torin. Although Young Sherlock Holmes continues to be the film most readily associated with his name, Cox’s credits reflect a broader working life across British and independent screen projects, with stage and television acting also forming part of his career.