Another son, Howard Coxe, was a newspaperman and novelist, and his grandson Louis O. Coxe was a poet and playwright best known for writing the Broadway version of Billy Budd.
The legal scholar Robert Cover suggests in the preface to his book, Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process, that Captain Vere may have been modeled after Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
The novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville is set on board ships of the Channel Fleet, in the immediate aftermath of the Spithead and Nore mutinies of 1797.
There he created roles in two Benjamin Britten operas, John Claggart in Billy Budd (1951), and Sir Walter Raleigh in Gloriana (1953).
At the time of his death he was on the verge of completing the manuscript for his first novel in three decades, Billy Budd, and had accumulated several large folders of unpublished verse.
Philip Spencer and the USS Somers affair were almost certainly the model for much of the story Billy Budd, by Herman Melville, who was the first cousin of Lieutenant Guert Gansevoort, an officer aboard the ship.
Billy Joel | Billy Wilder | Billy Crystal | Billy Bob Thornton | Billy Taylor | Billy Hart | Billy Connolly | Billy Bragg | Billy Idol | Billy Cobham | Billy Preston | Billy Ray Cyrus | Billy Graham | Billy Eckstine | Billy Budd | Billy the Kid | Billy Sunday | Billy Mitchell | Billy Zane | Billy Squier | Billy Martin | Billy Corgan | Billy Ocean | Billy Joe Shaver | Billy Meredith | Billy West | Billy Hughes | Billy Elliot | Billy Daniels | John Boy and Billy |
During his years on the roster, Foldi appeared as Schigolch in the company premieres of Alban Berg's Lulu (directed by John Dexter, 1977, which was published on DVD in 2010) and Dansker in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd (1978) as well as playing Dr. Bartolo in the premiere of Günther Rennert's Met staging of Le Nozze di Figaro (1975).
Hopkins has written extensively for films, including Here Come the Huggetts (1948), The Pickwick Papers (1952), Cast a Dark Shadow (1955), and Billy Budd (1962).
This theme is common to almost all of Britten's dramatic works: Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw and Owen Wingrave all focus on an outsider protagonist.
In addition to orchestral works, in 1949 he premiered a one-act opera based on the American novella, Billy Budd, by Herman Melville.
British engagements also include Bartolo in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for Opera North and Garsington Opera; Collatinus in Britten's Rape of Lucretia at Buxton Festival; and Sacristan (Tosca), Bosun (Billy Budd), Benedict (La Vie Parisienne) and Masetto (Don Giovanni) for Scottish Opera.
He continued to perform periodically with the company up through 2005, appearing in such parts as Achillas in Giulio Cesare, Brander in La Damnation de Faust, Dansker in Billy Budd, Friar Lawrence in Roméo et Juliette, Lodovico in Otello, the Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen, Pluto in Il ballo delle ingrate, and the Priest in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District among others.
He was one of the founding members of the NBC Opera Theatre, a company he performed with throughout the 1950s in such productions as Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd and the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio's The Trial at Rouen.
In addition to his roles in film and television, his resume includes numerous theatrical credits, with performances in plays both on and off Broadway, including: Ridiculous Fraud at the McCarter Theatre; Billy Budd at the Circle in the Square Theatre; Someone to Watch Over Me with the Denver Theatre Company; The Merchant of Venice on the Hartford Stage; and the national tour of The Lion in Winter.
Other work in the theatre includes: Beasts and Beauties, Too Clever By Half (Norwegian National Theatre, Bergen); Much Ado About Nothing (Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin); The Cosmonauts Last Message...(Donmar Wharehouse); Oh What a Lovely War, Guys and Dolls (Haymarket Theatre, Leicester); Billy Budd (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield).