Trivia

He's one of the many people mentioned in Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire" (1989).

Is portrayed by James Woods in Citizen Cohn (1992), Al Pacino in Angels in America (2003), Ron Vawter in Roy Cohn/Jack Smith (1994), Nathan Lane in "Angels in America" at the Neil Simon Theater (NYC) (2017), Will Brill in Fellow Travelers (2023), and Jeremy Strong in The Apprentice (2024).

He had an extensive collection of stuffed animals.

A famous no-show in many court cases.

Co-Counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings.

Almost never used notes when in court.

Graduated from Columbia Law School at the age of twenty.

Maintained longtime close personal relationships with Donald Trump and Roger Stone, and was a major mentor to Trump, the two talking on a nearly daily basis.

He was the inspiration for the character of the blue haired lawyer on the animated series The Simpsons (1989).

Cohn drew up the prenuptial contract between Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Trump (Ivana Marie Zelnickova) when they married in 1977, a contract that allowed Ivana Trump a relatively meager $20,000 a year.

He was the youngest U.S. Assistant Attorney of Manhattan at the time.

He lived with his mother until her passing when Roy was forty years old.

Father was a New York State Supreme Court justice. Mother was a heiress.

At the age of fifteen he arranged his first kickback, connecting the father of a friend who wanted to purchase a radio station with a Federal Communications Commission lawyer.

After passing the New York Bar Exam at the age of 21 he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. His most high profile case was the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg atom bomb secrets trial.

His great-uncle was Joshua Lionel Cowen, the founder and long time owner of the Lionel Corporation, a manufacturer of toy trains.

He was notorious for never paying bills or tabs he accumulated in restaurants, hotels or for home renovations as he was so feared no one wanted to risk getting on his bad side by asking for money from him.

A close personal friend of Barbara Walters.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 188-191. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

He is generally believed to have been the central figure in getting Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for their (alleged) crimes. This was the first case in US history in which people were executed for an espionage conviction.

He was admitted to the New York State Bar on his 21st birthday.

He is portrayed by Jeremy Strong in The Apprentice (2024).

Close confidant of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan.

In 1959 he promoted the heavyweight title rematch between Floyd Paterson and Ingemar Johansson that was secretly financed by the Genevieve crime family chief Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno.