Succession’s Brian Cox reveals he once SHOT an actor in the face while working as a stage manager 

Brian Cox has revealed he once shot a fellow actor in the face after accidentally firing a gun on stage.

The Succession star, 74, told how he thought his career was over before it got started after he pulled the trigger in a theatre as a young aspiring actor.

Fortunately the pistol fired blank cartridges, but the victim was left with burn injuries to his nose due to gunpowder and the force of the blast.

Cox was working as a stage manager at Scotland’s Dundee Rep Theatre and was being taught how to handle weapons being used in the productions when the mishap occurred.

Speaking to broadcaster Janice Forsyth on the Great Scot podcast, he said: ‘I was the worst stage manager, I was hopeless, and there was one horrific incident.

‘The worst incident was I burnt this guy’s nose. He was teaching me how to hand a gun to somebody, because in those days we used to have pistols that fired blanks.

‘He said, “You never hand the gun to somebody with the barrel pointing at them and you hand it with the chamber open”.

‘So I’m taking the gun as he’s handing it to me and then I hit the trigger and it went bang. It went black and he had a burnt nose.’

He added: ‘I still had a job after it. They blamed it on themselves for not instructing me properly.’

Cox, who was brought up in Dundee but now lives in New York, also told how he loves travelling to his homeland, but doesn’t think he would move back permanently because of the Scottish weather.

He said: ‘It’s always been a tussle for me because as a wee boy I was brought up in Dundee and I used to look at the Tay and think, “Oh, I can’t wait to cross it. I can’t wait to get across that water, I really can’t”.

‘And now it’s the opposite, I can’t wait to go the other way. I don’t know whether I’d ever live here again because the damp, you know, and I have arthritis and my sister has got osteoporosis.

‘She’s suffered from the Scottish weather. But there’s something about the land which is undeniable. I love it.’

Cox has said playing ageing media mogul Logan Roy in the HBO drama series Succession has been the highlight of his 60-year career.

The part won him a Golden Globe award for best actor earlier this year and he was nominated for an Emmy award.

Screen star Cox said he is hoping to shoot the third series of the show in the near future but would have to take precautions due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

He has revealed that recent tests showed he had suffered from COVID-19 without him knowing it.

Cox visited hospital for a routine blood test for his diabetes when he discovered he had the antibodies for the virus.