As he approaches 60, actor Brian Cox says he has no intention of retiring - and his latest film, in which he plays a seedy gambler who tries to fix the Special Olympics, is out this week. He talks to Steve Pratt about how his original portrayal of cannabalistic killer Hannibal Lecter on screen has always haunted him.

The shadow of Hannibal Lecter is never far away from Brian Cox. The Dundee-born actor was the first to play the cannibalistic killer on screen and remains, to many, the best.

The role is invariably mentioned in interviews. "It's a constant, something I can't ignore even if I watched last night Anthony Hopkins become the third best actor in the world and Johnny Depp the second best, and Marlon Brando top, which I feel is acceptable," he says.

His personal favourite, Spencer Tracy, came in at number ten - "but if you think he was around 40 years ago, that's not bad".

Cox himself is no slouch at winning awards, although they tend to get lost amid the sheer volume of his work for the theatre and now the cinema. Since giving a towering performance on stage as Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus two decades ago, he's tended to concentrate on film and TV although will shortly be back on the London stage in Tom Stoppard's new play at the Royal Court Theatre.

He's now based in California, with his wife and two young children, for one very good reason. "I have to go where the work is," he says, "and the reason I live and work in America is because the work is there."

Cox, who has grown-up children from a previous marriage, is enjoying fatherhood again. "It's great. I'd probably recommend it to every man of my age," he says.

He'll be 60 this June but has no intention of retiring. "I'm at an age where I'm supposed to get ready for the carpet slippers and golf, and fortunately that will never happen to me," he says.

"I have nothing against people playing golf. Who was it that said golf is a good walk spoiled? I've played once when I was very drunk on Sidcup gold course. I got drunker and drunker, and think I finished the round at 70."

Cox has reached an age where he doesn't mind speaking his mind and risk offence. This is just as well because his latest film, The Ringer, is a comedy about a man who tries to fix the Special Olympics. With the Farrelly Brothers, who made such taboo-breaking comedies as There's Something About Mary and Stuck On You, as producers, you might fear the worst.

In the event, The Ringer emerges as an endearing, socially-aware film that the Special Olympics organisers felt able to endorse.

Cox plays a seedy gambler who sees a way of paying off his debts by rigging the Special Olympics by getting his nephew (played by Jackass performer Johnny Knoxville) to pretend to be mentally challenged and compete in the games.

He doesn't differentiate between projects as apparently diverse as Titus Andronicus and The Ringer. "It's exactly what my career should be about. I read The Ringer script, loved it and wanted to do it," he says.

He did a film a few years ago called LIE, about an older man's relationship with a younger boy, which people told him would be damaging to his career because of the subject matter. That wasn't the case and besides, as the Special Olympics backed The Ringer, he felt confident the film might actually help their public image.

"They suffer from the handicap of pity or sympathy. They would rather that's reassessed and there's much more you can do with humour. There's a lot of humour in those kids. They're eccentric but very funny," he says.

He also has nothing but praise for star Johnny Knoxville, who made his name doing silly and downright dangerous stunts in the TV show Jackass. "He's the sweetest guy," says Cox. "He's a wild boy, a party boy and doesn't have a lot of confidence in his acting. He was wonderful with those kids. He was phenomenal, gave 100 per cent all the day."

Not all movies go as smoothly. One he made last year, The Flying Scotsman, about champion cyclist Graeme Obree, has been caught in a "very murky" financial situation.

"It's the whole problem of making films in this country. The whole notion of funding and how films are taken care of, and how you can't always look to state funds to save your bacon," says Cox.

"I love the cinema. I waited far too long to do cinema. I am at home there. I do the theatre because it's like alcoholism - you have to have the occasional sniff even if we don't drink it."

He's also alongside other British actors making US TV series after winning an Emmy for his work on the mini-series Nuremberg. He's joined the cast of the western Deadwood as Jack Langrishe, an eccentric producer and theatre owner introducing culture to the wild west.

Because there's a large cast of characters, he's not needed all the time. "I'm half-an-hour up the road from the studios and sit at the other end of the phone waiting for them to ring and say, 'you're on'," he says.

l The Ringer (12A) opens in cinemas tomorrow.

Published: ??/??/2004