He is remembered for his roles as Dr. Bombay in the comedy fantasy series Bewitched (1964–1972) of which he was the last surviving adult cast member, Colonel Crittendon in the comedy series Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971), Malcolm Merriweather in The Andy Griffith Show (1963–1965), Colonel Redford in Barnaby Jones (1975), Max in Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), and Archibald Gracie IV in the film Titanic (1997).

[1] He was born in Port Talbot, Glamorgan, the son of Queenie (née Barrett) and Gerald Lawson, both stage actors.

After serving with the Royal Navy in World War II and the Korean War, he resumed his acting career and appeared in over 30 cinema films from 1956 to 2004, including two cinematic dramatizations of the sinking of the doomed passenger liner the RMS Titanic, separated by 39 years, viz, Titanic (1997) (as Colonel Archibald Gracie IV) and an earlier version of the tragedy A Night to Remember (1958) uncredited as lookout in the Crow's Nest Frederick Fleet, appearing very briefly in the film but the memorable line, "Iceberg, dead ahead sir!"

He played the role of Winston Havelock, a put-out-to-grass former Royal Flying Corps airman in the 1999 adventure film The Mummy.

Fox was the penultimate surviving adult recurring cast member of Bewitched, leaving Nancy Kovack (who portrayed character Darrin Stephens' ex-girlfriend Sheila throughout the series) and Bernie Kopell (who appeared as various characters in 9 episodes) as the only remaining adult cast members upon his death; child actors Erin Murphy and David Lawrence, who portrayed Darrin and Samantha's children (Tabitha and Adam) are still alive.

[6] On the morning of 14 December 2016, Fox died of heart failure at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, California.