Alex Cox received widespread acclaim in the Hollywood-counterculture movement of the 1980’s for his cult films Repo Man and Sid & Nancy. Now considered cult favorites, Straight to Hell (1987), a neo-western starring Joe Strummer of The Clash, and Walker, about William Walker, an American lawyer, journalist and self-proclaimed President of Nicaragua in the 1850s, were critically and/or publicly unpopular, which resulted in the end of Cox’s Hollywood studio career. Cox left the Hollywood scene, but has written and directed many internationally funded films; he also co-wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). Alex continued to create original and ambitious independent cinema. His latest is a crowdfunded film Tombstone Rashomon, an homage to Akira Kurosawa steeped in the mythology of the Old West. He also writes regularly on spaghetti westerns and other films for Film Comment and has published several books on film appreciation and his career.
