Mickey Knox

Debuting in 1946's Killer McCoy, powerfully built American actor Mickey Knox flourished in the late '40s in hoodlum and hardguy parts. He was one of juvenile delinquent John Derek's cronies in Knock on Any Door (1949), a gambler in Any Number Can Play (1949) and a mob boss' henchman (named Angles) in the Bowery Boys' Angels in Disguise (1949). Knox was showered with critical approval for his role as the Pacific Kid, a small-time punk with big-time aspirations in the 1950 B-picture Western Pacific Agent; so sociopathic was Knox's character that at one point he tried to bump off his own father (Morris Carnovsky). For obscure reasons (possibly political), Knox dropped out of Hollywood in the early '50s, resurfacing a decade later in Italy. Active in European-filmed productions into the '80s, Knox was cast in A View From the Bridge (1961), Reds (1981) Inchon (1982) and Bolero. Knox also occupied his time as a screenwriter: it was he who wrote the English adaptation of Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968). - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide