Trivia

Is a great fan of the Dutch soccer team Feyenoord Rotterdam

Father of Joeri Cox.

Gerard Cox was a Dutch singer, cabaret artist, actor and director.

In 2020, he was involved with a film which also starred his former wife Joke Bruijs. They had ended their marriage in 1987, after realising that they were just good friends.

Cox announced in August 2025 he was diagnosed with metastasized oesophageal cancer and refused treatment.

On October 13th, in 1973, Gerard Cox entered the Veronica Top 40 with the single "'t Is weer voorbij, die mooie zomer" (It's over again, that beautiful summer). And he was right: it was already autumn before this song even entered the charts. The record label CBS, which had signed Cox, initially had no interest in recording and releasing this nostalgic track. But Gerard was right and was allowed to proceed with the release. After all, he had also enjoyed great success with his previous LP. Ultimately, the single sold over 200,000 copies. "'t Is weer voorbij, die mooie zomer" deservedly reached number one in the Veronica Top 40 on December 15th, just before the first day of winter. The record label was delighted with this impressive result.

In 1968, Cox began collaborating with Frans Halsema at NV SPOT. Together with Adèle Bloemendaal, they toured with the program "We Give Knowledge with Joy." The collaboration with Frans Halsema resumed in 1973 with the program: "Wat je zegt dat ben je zelf "(What You Say Is Your Own Thing). The best-known segments of this program were the parodies of then-popular radio and television programs such as "Geen ja, geen nee", "Voor een briefkaart op de eerste rang" and "Raden maar".

He began his career as a teacher at a public primary school in Crooswijk, Rotterdam.

The onslaught of left-wing critics ensured his dismissal before the left-wing moral police were definitively dismissed. This left-wing attack deeply affected Cox, as he later admitted. He couldn't understand how an artist like Yves Montand could be both engaged and entertaining in France, and how such a broad view of the theatrical profession was considered a mortal sin in the Netherlands. The path Cox subsequently chose was remarkably successful. And as the saying goes: A successful life is the best revenge. Ultimately, he felt more akin to the clown Buziau and singer-comedian Lou Bandy, and saw himself more as a popular artist than an artist who desperately needed to educate the people.

In the 1960s he performed as a cabaret artist on stage with performances such as Van de prins geen kwaad (1963), Moeilijk doen (1964) and Welvraat (1966).

A controversy arose when he called US President Richard Nixon "a murderer." The weekly magazine Elsevier suggested on October 23, 1970, that Cox should be prosecuted because he was a friendly head of state.

On October 28, 1966, he was charged with "intentionally insulting the King or Queen" in his song "Poor Old Man." Cox also wrote controversial songs in 1968, one of which, "God Is Not Dead," prompted the VPRO to cancel a broadcast of the program "Give Him Space.".

1973 more or less marked the end of Cox's career as a critical cabaret artist, who then shifted more towards entertainment. During this same period, his lifelong relationship with Joke Bruijs also began, as lovers, friends, and perfect colleagues.

The municipality of Rotterdam awarded Cox the Wolfert van Borselen Medal in 2000.

In 1962 he was rejected from drama school, but he did play a small role in the play Blijde Verwachting (Happy Expectation) by the Lily Bouwmeester company.

Cox has always harbored nostalgia for the Rotterdam days of the 1940s and 1950s. For him, the traditional Rotterdam adage "Don't talk, just polish"-or, in Feyenoord-football parlance, "actions speak louder than words"-applied. He was a remarkable man, someone with a somewhat bizarre and completely unnecessary Rotterdam Calimero feel to Amsterdam, a great singer, a good actor, with a keen eye for commercial success.

Cox provided the voice of Lucky Luke for the Dutch-language version of the cartoon series of the same name in 1983 and 1991.

From the hit 1948, to the tune of Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan and first performed in the Dutch version by Kees van Kooten and Wim de Bie, comes the phrase 'Toen was geluk heel gewoon', after which his succesful television series was named.

From 1989 to 1992 in "Vreemde Praktijken" (Strange Practices) together with Joke Bruijs, from whom he was already divorced at the time, a married couple.

In 1973, Cox scored a hit in both the Veronica Top 40 on Radio Veronica and the public charts: the Daverende Dertig / Hilversum 3 Top 30 on Hilversum 3 with the album "t Is weer voorbij die mooie zomer" (a Dutch cover of the American song "City of New Orleans"). This hit drew considerable criticism from the artistic community. Especially colleagues from committed cabaret as Ivo de Wijs, in particular, criticized Cox's perceived artistic sellout. Gerard ignored it and subsequently continued with that nostalgic sentiment on his next single, 'Die Goeie Ouwe Tijd'.

From 1994 to 2009, Cox was best known as a screenwriter and actor in the 226-episode, highly popular KRO television series " Toen was geluk heel gewoon" (When Happiness Was Common), in which he collaborated with Sjoerd Pleijsier and again played a married couple with Joke Bruijs. He played RET bus driver Jaap Kooiman in that series. In 1999, he won both the Golden Televizier Ring (for best television program) and the Golden Image (for best comedy production) for the series. Cox also received a Golden Image for best comedy actor.

In 2015, Cox won the Radio 5 Nostalgia Oeuvre Award.

He sang the song "Ajax is Dead...!" following Feyenoord's victory in the 1970 European Cup. He would later regret this song. He called it a "youthful sin" and said, "I offended a lot of people with that." It also made it difficult for him to perform in Amsterdam for a while.

From 1970 onward, Cox worked with Gregor Frenkel Frank, Luc Lutz, and Frits Lambrechts, among others, on the KRO radio program Cursief. Cox's conference "Pollekeke," about a drugged Flemish cyclist, is now a classic.

As a performer of listening songs in the style of Jaap Fischer, he first gained some recognition in the Netherlands and Flanders around 1960. He also made his first gramophone recordings around that time, titled "Jacqueline." He recorded the songs Jacqueline and De mensenbel for the Student Gramophone Record Industry, which was pressed and distributed by His Master's Voice.