My friend and creative partner Dónal Cox, who has died aged 78, was a respected actor, voiceover artist and inspiring communicator who found unexpected purpose in life after losing his voice to laryngeal cancer.
The eldest of four children, he was born in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. His parents, Catherine (nee McDonald) and Joseph, ran a grocery business. Dónal showed an early love of language, and a sense of the theatrical acquired as a cathedral altar boy. At 17, while a pupil at Belcamp college, Dublin, his experience of playing Hamlet proved a defining moment.
In the 1960s he trained and worked in Dublin at the Abbey, Ireland’s National Theatre, and with the actor and director Micheál Mac Liammoir at the Gate. He made regular TV appearances on RTÉ, some of them in the Irish language.
Cast in the BBC’s Z-Cars, Dónal moved to London in 1969. He subsequently appeared in regional and West End theatres in productions featuring the work of Irish writers and for many years performed with Irish Heritage, a UK showcase for Ireland’s classical music and literature. He became known on screen in ITV’s General Hospital and the 1974 film Philadelphia, Here I Come!.
Dónal had three children with Jean Oldale, whom he married in 1976. The couple were among founder members of the East-West Centre, a pioneering project of the Community Health Foundation charity, opened in 1977. Dónal immersed himself in the world of holistic health and macrobiotics. Though the marriage ended, his contribution to the organisation continued.
In time he returned to acting. Blessed with a rich and resonant voice, he also became a sought-after voiceover artist. When I met him in 2009 Dónal was writing a highly original piece of “poetry theatre”, a solo show, which he asked me to producefor a tour. It and our subsequent work together as Fifth Province Productions demonstrated his consummate skill in engaging a live audience.
His screen projects included work with Richard Ayoade and Ricky Gervais, and Dónal returned eagerly to the stage in 2017, cast by the director Sam Mendes in the award-winning West End play The Ferryman.
During the Covid-19 pandemic Dónal was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. In 2022 he underwent a total laryngectomy and faced a shocking reality: the voice that had been central to his identity had gone, leaving him unable to speak.
While recovering he came across the charity Shout at Cancer. Dónal became an enthusiastic member of its remarkable laryngectomy choir, which offered support, friendship and opportunities to perform. Gaining confidence with his voice prosthesis, he spoke eloquently about the experience of voice loss. In 2023 he completed a unique recording job using his new voice, and explored AI’s capacity to recreate the one he had lost.
This year, as cancer recurred, Dónal’s trademark energy diminished. Nonetheless he relished giving last performances with Irish Heritage and with the choir.
Dónal is survived by his children, Katy, Áine and Brían, four grandchildren and a great-grandson, and his siblings, Frank, Marie and Christine.
