He was born in Rochester New York, the son of Doctor Roscoe Squires Wilcox of Rochester, who died when Wilcox was 16. His first wife was Florence Rice, daughter of sportswriter Grantland Rice, whom he married in 1937 and divorced two years later.
He attended Nazareth Hall Academy and John Marshall High School in Rochester.
He started his career with a Buffalo, New York Community Theater Group. His career began in earnest in 1936 after being signed by a Universal Pictures talent scout while playing Duke Mantee in a summer-stock production of The Petrified Forest. Wilcox worked in eighteen Hollywood movies before World World War II, starting with the role of the Intern in Let Them Live.
(Another source states that he played the romantic lead in 26 films, before going into the service for World World War II) He was a contract player with Universal Studios, unhappy with his typecasting in "cops and robbers" roles.
He is perhaps best known for playing Bob Wayne and his alter ego, "The Copperhead" in the 1940 movie serial Mysterious Doctor Satan. He was inducted into the United States Army February 27, 1942.
He served thirty-eight months in the United States Army during World World War II, rising from private to the rank of captain, and seeing action in Belgium, France and Germany. Following the war, he returned to Rochester, and appeared in an amateur production of Soldier"s Wife, a quiet comedy by Rose Franken about a veteran returning from the Pacific, presented in January 1946 by the Rochester Community Players.
Wilcox, according to a contemporary news report, was considering whether go back to Hollywood or to work in professional theater.
Only four of the twenty-five film credits on IMDb are dated after January 1946. His post-war work was mostly on the stage. Wilcox died of a heart attack on June 11, 1955, while riding a train from New York City to Rochester to visit his mother.
A porter discovered his body in a Pullman berth when he tried to wake the actor at the Rochester train station stop.
He was 45 years old. He is buried at Riverside Cemetery.
