Opera Singer. A dramatic tenor of wide repertoire, he is remembered for his long career in Mannheim and at Wagner's Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Raised in Alabama, he served in World War II as a pilot in the US Army Air Corps then returned home to begin his musical education at the University of Alabama where he made his operatic debut in a student production of Gounod's "Faust". Cox moved on to the New England Conservatory of Music where he earned his graduate degree and while there made his 1951 professional bow with the New England Opera Theater as Lensky in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin"; he studied at the Rome Opera House on a Fulbright Scholarship, sang Rodolfo from Puccini's "La Boheme" at Gian Carlo Menotti's Spoleto Festival, and made his 1956 Bayreuth debut as a Steersman in "The Flying Dutchman" prior to his 1959 bow at Mannheim. Over the next two decades he was a regular at Bayreuth and at Mannheim where he was designated Kammersanger, his roles including several Wagnerian parts, among them Walther von Stolzing from "Die Meistersinger" and the title lead of "Parsifal", as well as Don Alvaro of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" and the tragic title general from the same composer's "Otello". Cox's signature piece, however, was to be Siegfried from Wagner's Ring Cycle operas "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung" which he sang at Bayreuth, Vienna, Berlin, La Scala Milano, Munich, Covent Garden London, and elsewhere. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut on April 2, 1976, as Walther and used the same role as the vehicle for his 1984 farewell to the stage. After retirement he lived in Bayreuth but travelled widely as a respected teacher, competition judge, and master class presenter. He was named to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, lived his final years in a nursing facility, and can be heard on a number of recordings from his performances.