Acting veteran Brian Cox plays the suicidal adoptive father of the evil girl Samara (Daveigh Chase), who allegedly started “The Ring” with her deadly videotape. His crazed death scene with Naomi Watts witnessing his self-electrocution could only be accomplished by an actor who worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company as King Lear and as the original Hannibal Lecktor in Manhunter (1986).