LONDON, ENGLAND: Brian Cox recently revealed that he “felt a little bit rejected” after his character in the hit series 'Succession' died “too early” in season four. The actor has previously admitted that he lived in fear of becoming poor again despite his blooming success.
Cox, 76, plays Logan Roy, patriarch of the Roy family in the series. The fourth and final season of the show, which follows the infighting between Logan's three children to take over his empire, is currently airing on HBO. Besides 'Succession', Cox has acted in blockbuster films like 'Troy,' 'Braveheart,' 'Man Hunter,' 'Red,' 'The Bourne Identity,' and many others. Before his rise to fame, however, the acclaimed thespian grew up in a poor environment. In light of that, he admitted that he lived every day fearing that he could slide back into poverty.
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In his Channel 5 documentary, 'How The Other Half Live', Cox branded money as his "own personal demon" and admitted that his "destitute" childhood "hangs over him throughout his entire life."
He said, "I still have a fear that it's all going to be taken away and I'll end up in poverty again. It never leaves you. It's like the Damoclean sword that hangs over you throughout your entire life. I never really felt it much when I was young, I was a kid and just got on with it, I was literally surviving. But as I got older I'd look at that boy and think, my God, he survived, how did he do it? It's still a mystery to me."
The documentary explored the wealth gap between the rich and the poor as well as Cox's own complicated relationship with money. "It's [money] my own personal demon," he told producers. "After my father died, my mother discovered his bank had a sum of £10 in it. We were destitute. My mother only had a widow's pension, which would often run out before the end of the week. So I'd go to the fish and chip shop and ask if they had any scraps - the bits of batter at the bottom of the fryer - and take them home for us to eat."
"Wealth is becoming more concentrated in that top 1 percent and the rest of the world is suffering," Cox said, describing money as "the tragedy of the world." He added, "When you play one of the richest men in the world you live that life for nine months of the year where you're in a kind of cocoon, and I feel there's an inequity that needs to be dealt with. So this series comes very much from what I grew up with and what I saw, having been lower middle class and having a relatively happy childhood until my father passed away. Many people don't have the means by which they can achieve any kind of standard of living for themselves. Money is the tragedy of the world."
Last year, the actor spoke to Telegraph about finding success and wealth in Hollywood. He told the outlet that despite being a TV star, he is not "one of them" nor a "multi-millionaire." According to him, money does make people safe but it also makes them "guilty," insisting that everybody suffers from their exposure to money in some way. Speaking of the inheritance he would leave his children, Cox said he his property will be divided amongst his offspring.
The actor, however, admitted he didn't want any promise of an inheritance to be too much of a "safety net" for his children and that he still wants them to get out in the world and "work their asses off." Cox has two children with his ex-wife Caroline Burt, namely Alan and Margaret. He also has sons Orson and Torin with his current wife Nicole Ansari-Cox.
