Putting the Rabbit in the Hat: A Memoir

In this candid work, Scottish actor Cox (Salem to Moscow), of HBO’s Succession, chronicles the triumphs and setbacks in his distinguished career. Growing up in 1950s Dundee in the shadow of his father’s death (who died suddenly when Cox was eight), Cox found refuge from a fraught home life with his mentally frail mother by going to the movies. It was watching Saturday Night and Saturday Morning one day when he finally realized his calling: “It was all about working-class people.... I thought, My God, that could be me.” From here, Cox runs through the most memorable moments of his acting career, from his humble beginnings at the Dundee Repertory Theatre to his film debut in the 1971 drama Nicholas and Alexandra to being awe-struck by Peter O’Toole while playing Agamemnon in The Iliad. Cox isn’t one to sugarcoat his opinions; for instance, Succession, he writes, sometimes “focuses too much on the comedy at the expense of what is, essentially, a brilliant drama.” Meanwhile, fellow actor Steven Seagal “suffers from that Donald Trump syndrome of thinking himself far more... talented than he actually is.” At the same time, he doesn’t shy away from his own flaws or his struggles with “deep-seated insecurity.” While this doesn’t exactly break new ground as a celebrity memoir, its prickly honesty is delightfully refreshing. (Jan.)