8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Bud Cort | |
|---|---|
 Cort in 2008 | |
| Born | Walter Edward Cox March 29, 1948 Rye, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 11, 2026 (aged 77) Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1967–2016 |
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Walter Edward Cox (March 29, 1948 – February 11, 2026), known professionally as Bud Cort, was an American actor known for his unorthodox starring roles in Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (1970), for which he was nominated for a Golden Laurel Award, and Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude (1971), for which he was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award. He also had supporting roles in films such as M*A*S*H (1970), Electric Dreams (1984), Heat (1995), Dogma (1999), Coyote Ugly (2000), Pollock (2000), and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004).
Cort also voiced Toyman over the course of various series in the DC Animated Universe, including Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited.
Early life
Walter Edward "Bud" Cox was born in Rye, New York on March 29, 1948, to Joseph, an orchestra leader, and Alma, a publicist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He had a brother and three sisters.[1] One of his nephews is Peter Berkman of the band Anamanaguchi.[2]
Cort began taking acting lessons from William Hickey when he was 14.[3] To avoid confusion with actor Wally Cox, he used his mother's maiden name as his stage surname, although he changed the original spelling of Court after Broadway's Cort Theatre.[1][4] He attended Iona Preparatory School, where he frequently skipped classes to watch Broadway shows. After graduation, he attempted to attend acting classes at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, but was rejected, as the classes were already full; he applied again with a portfolio of paintings and was instead accepted as a scenic art major.[3]
Career
Cort was discovered in a revue by director Robert Altman, who subsequently cast him in two of his movies in 1970, M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud. In the latter, he played the title role. Cort went on to his best-known role as the suicide-obsessed Harold in Harold and Maude. Though it was not particularly successful on release, it gained international cult status and is now considered an American classic, ranking Number 69 on the American Film Institute's 100 Best Romantic Comedies.[5]
In 1979, Cort nearly died in a car crash on the Hollywood Freeway where he collided with an abandoned car blocking a lane into which he was turning. He broke an arm and a leg and sustained a concussion and a fractured skull. His face was severely lacerated and his lower lip nearly severed. The crash resulted in plastic surgeries, substantial hospital bills, a lost court case, and the disruption of his career.[6][7]
He subsequently appeared in a number of film, stage and TV roles: Endgame, Sledge Hammer!, The Chocolate War, The Big Empty, Theodore Rex, Dogma, But I'm a Cheerleader, Pollock, The Twilight Zone, The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.[citation needed]
Cort's voiceover roles include Edgar the computer in the film Electric Dreams; Toyman over the course of various DC Animated Universe series including Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited; and Josiah Wormwood in an episode of the earlier DCAU production Batman: The Animated Series. He can also be heard as The King in the English-language version of the feature film The Little Prince (2015), which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and won the César Award for Best Animated Film in February 2016.[8][9] It was made available to American audiences through Netflix in 2016.[10]
Cort made a guest appearance on the November 8, 2007, episode of Ugly Betty as the priest officiating at Wilhelmina Slater's wedding. In 2010, he guest-starred on Criminal Minds in the episode "Mosley Lane" as the elderly paedophile Roger Roycewood. In 2012, Cort appeared as the artist Gleeko in the Eagleheart episode "Exit Wound the Gift Shop".[citation needed]
Death
Cort died of pneumonia at an assisted living facility in Norwalk, Connecticut, on February 11, 2026, at the age of 77.[1]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Up the Down Staircase | Student | Uncredited |
| 1969 | Sweet Charity | Hippie | |
| 1970 | M*A*S*H | Pvt. Lorenzo Boone | |
| The Strawberry Statement | Elliot—Coxswain | ||
| The Traveling Executioner | Jimmy Croft | ||
| Brewster McCloud | Brewster McCloud | Nominated—Laurel Award for Male Star of Tomorrow | |
| 1971 | Gas-s-s-s | Hooper | [11] |
| Harold and Maude | Harold Parker Chasen | Nominated—BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | |
| 1975 | Hallucination Strip | Massimo Monaldi | |
| 1977 | Why Shoot the Teacher? | Max Brown | |
| Pumping Iron | Himself | Scenes deleted | |
| 1978 | Son of Hitler | Willi Hitler | |
| 1980 | Die Laughing | Mueller | |
| 1981 | She Dances Alone | Director | |
| 1983 | Hysterical | Dr. John | |
| 1984 | The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud | Sigmund Freud | |
| Love Letters | Danny De Fronso | ||
| Electric Dreams | Edgar, the Computer (voice) | ||
| Maria's Lovers | Harvey | ||
| 1986 | Telephone | ||
| Invaders from Mars | Mark Weinstein | ||
| 1988 | Love at Stake | Parson Babcock | |
| The Chocolate War | Brother Jacques | ||
| 1989 | Out of the Dark | Doug Stringer | |
| 1990 | Going Under | McNally | Uncredited |
| Brain Dead | Jack Halsey | ||
| 1991 | Ted & Venus | Ted Whitley | Also director and co-writer |
| 1995 | Girl in the Cadillac | Bud | |
| Heat | Solenko, Restaurant Manager | Uncredited | |
| 1996 | Theodore Rex | Spinner | |
| 1998 | I Woke Up Early the Day I Died | Shopkeeper | |
| Sweet Jane | Dr. Geiler | ||
| 1999 | Dogma | John Doe Jersey (aka God) | |
| But I'm a Cheerleader | Peter Bloomfield | ||
| 2000 | South of Heaven, West of Hell | Agent Otts | |
| The Million Dollar Hotel | Shorty | ||
| Coyote Ugly | Romero | ||
| Pollock | Howard Putzel | ||
| 2001 | Made | Bernardo, Gay House Owner | Uncredited |
| 2003 | The Big Empty | Neely | |
| 2004 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Bill Ubell | Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated—Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Ensemble Cast |
| 2007 | The Number 23 | Dr. Sirius Leary | Uncredited |
| 2014 | Dream Corps LLC | Carl Kwartz | |
| 2015 | The Little Prince | The King (voice) | [12]Winner—Behind the Voice Actor Awards for Best Vocal Ensemble in a TV Special/Direct-to-DVD Title or Short |
| 2016 | Affections | Short film |
Television
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Columbo | Milt | Episode: "Double Exposure"; uncredited |
| 1976 | Bernice Bobs Her Hair | Warren | Television film |
| 1980 | Brave New World | Bernard Marx | Television film |
| 1982 | Insight | Teddy | Episode: "Teddy" |
| 1982-1983 | Faerie Tale Theatre The Nightingale Rumpelstilkin | The Page and The Musicmaster | |
| 1985 | Tales of the Unexpected | Newt | Episode: "Nothin' Short of Highway Robbery" |
| 1987 | Bates Motel | Alex West | NBC television film |
| 1988 | The Twilight Zone | Willy Gardner | Episode: "The Trunk" |
| 1992 | Batman: The Animated Series | Josiah Wormwood (voice) | Episode: "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy"[12] |
| 1993 | And the Band Played On | Antique Shop Owner | Television film |
| 1995 | The Mask: Animated Series | Fritz Drizzle/Tempest (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 1996 | Superman: The Animated Series | Toyman (voice)[12] | |
| 1998 | The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries | Flint Northwood (voice) | Episode: "The Stilted Perch"[12] |
| 2003 | Static Shock | Toyman (voice)[12] | Episode: "Toys in the Hood" |
| 2006 | Justice League Unlimited | Episode: "Alive!" | |
| Arrested Development | Himself | Episode: "Fakin' It" | |
| 2007 | Ugly Betty | Priest | Episode: "A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding" |
| 2010 | Criminal Minds | Roger Roycewood | Episode: "Mosley Lane" |
| 2012 | Eagleheart | Gleeko | Episode: "Exit Wound the Gift Shop" |
References
- Risen, Clay. "Bud Cort, Who Starred in 1971's 'Harold and Maude,' Dies at 77". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2026.
- Bud Cort, 'Harold and Maude' Star, Dies at 77 After Long Illness
- Davidson, James A. Hal Ashby and the Making of Harold and Maude. p. 70.
- Stenzel, Wesley. "Bud Cort, Harold and Maude star, dies at 77". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 11, 2026.
- "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions". American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 13, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- "Bud Cort profile". Salon. September 4, 1999. Archived from the original on August 6, 2011. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
- "Bud Cort". whet.net. Archived from the original on June 20, 2024. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- Felperin, Leslie (May 22, 2015). "The Little Prince ('Le Petit Prince'): Cannes Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 3, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- "France's César awards celebrate diversity with 'Fatima' and 'Mustang'". France 24. February 27, 2016. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
- Kilday, Gregg (March 17, 2016). "Netflix Picks Up The Little Prince From Paramount". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
- "The Fluffer speaks up for Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It". Filmink. October 31, 2025. Retrieved October 31, 2025.
- "Bud Cort (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on September 3, 2023. Retrieved September 3, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Bud Cort, a veteran stage and screen actor whose best-known role was one of his first, playing a death-obsessed, 19-year-old recluse named Harold opposite Ruth Gordon’s 79-year-old, happy-go-lucky Holocaust survivor named Maude in the 1971 off-kilter romantic comedy “Harold and Maude,” died on Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn. He was 77.
A representative for his family said that the death, at an assisted-living facility, was from complications from pneumonia.
Mr. Cort appeared in more than 40 movies, dozens of TV shows and countless theater productions, but even late in life he was often recognized on the street for a single role: that of Harold Chasen, a precocious, morose rich teenager who falls into friendship, and then love, with Maude Chardin, who lives in an abandoned railroad car and is old enough to be his grandmother.
The film, directed by Hal Ashby, is by turns humorous, touching and melancholic; late in the film, Harold sees a tattoo on Maude’s arm, left over from her time in a Nazi concentration camp.
Advertisement
Though initially a critical and commercial flop — Variety said that it “has all the fun and gaiety of a burning orphanage” — through the 1970s it developed a cult following, especially on college campuses, where its quirky, anti-establishment sensibility hit home in the post-hippie era.
Today it is widely considered one of the best films of the 1970s. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it No. 9 in its list of best romantic comedies.
Mr. Cort got his first break a few years before “Harold and Maude,” when the director Robert Altman saw him doing stand-up comedy in Manhattan and cast him in a small part in his 1970 Korean War comedy “M*A*S*H.”
Advertisement
Mr. Altman liked Mr. Cort’s acting enough that he immediately gave him the title role in his next film, “Brewster McCloud,” which came out later that same year. In that movie, which also starred Shelley Duvall, Mr. Cort played a flight-obsessed boy who lives in a shelter under the Houston Astrodome and becomes a suspect in a series of bird-dropping-related deaths.
The film did poorly among critics and moviegoers, but it caught the attention of Mr. Ashby, who was casting for his upcoming film about an extremely dark May-December romance between a similarly introverted young man and a much, much older woman.
Mr. Cort was 21 when he played the part of Harold with wry confidence; many of his most memorable moments, like a fourth-wall-breaking smile into the camera, were his idea.
But the film that made him famous also made him something of an outcast.
He fought with the studio, Paramount, over edits, leading it to exclude him from much of the film’s publicity. He was later typecast as a character actor and offered only offbeat roles when he believed he deserved to play the lead.
He said that Milos Forman considered him for a supporting part in his 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” but that he lost his chance when he insisted that he get the lead. That part, Randle McMurphy, went to Jack Nicholson, who won an Oscar.
Advertisement
By his own account, Mr. Cort spent much of the 1970s depressed and out of film work, getting by with stage roles. For a time, he lived in the guest cottage at the Los Angeles home of Groucho Marx, with whom he became close friends. When Mr. Marx lost a tooth, he gave it to Mr. Cort as a gift.
Mr. Cort had bit parts in several movies, including “Pumping Iron” (1977), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, from which his only scene was ultimately cut.
In 1979, he played the lead in “Son of Hitler,” about an illiterate woodworker who is thought to be the son of the Nazi dictator. It did not do well at the box office.
That same year, Mr. Cort was in a car accident that left him with broken bones and a disfigured face. Much of the money he had earned from acting went to plastic surgeries.
He was back to acting by the mid-1980s but mostly in single episodes in TV series like “Columbo,” a reboot of “The Twilight Zone” and the comedy-drama “Ugly Betty.” He also had minor parts in movies like the crime thriller “Heat” (1995), which starred Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and the Bill Murray comedy “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” (2004).
Advertisement
Part of what held him back, Mr. Cort said, was his emotional attachment to his work and his willingness to fight directors, producers and writers over every detail of his performance. He especially disliked critics who gave him negative reviews.
After an interviewer for The Boston Globe told him to his face that he didn’t like his 1977 film “Why Shoot the Teacher,” a comedy-drama set during the Depression, Mr. Cort got up to leave.
“I don’t want to talk to anyone who didn’t love the movie,” Mr. Cort said. “I can’t believe that I opened up my personal life to you, and then you tell me you didn’t like this wonderful movie.”
The reporter, who wrote about the encounter anyway, asked Mr. Cort if he couldn’t separate his personal and professional lives.
“It’s the same thing,” he replied.
Walter Edward Cox was born on March 29, 1948, in Rye, N.Y. His parents were in the entertainment business: His father, Joseph, was the leader of a big band, the Joe Cox Orchestra, and his mother, Alma (Court) Cox, worked as a publicist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, a job that involved hosting stars like Clark Gable and Judy Garland whenever they came to New York.
Advertisement
By high school, Mr. Cort said he knew he wanted to act. He skipped classes to venture into Manhattan to catch matinees and, after graduation, he enrolled at New York University to give him a base for auditions.
He had small roles in the movies “Up the Down Staircase” (1967), the high school drama starring Sandy Dennis, and “Sweet Charity,” the 1969 musical with Shirley MacLaine. Eventually he left college and began doing stand-up comedy. He chose his stage name to avoid confusion with the television star Wally Cox.
Mr. Cort is survived by a brother, Joseph, and three sisters, Kerry Cox, Tracy Cox Berkman and Shelly Cox Dufour.
Mr. Cort maintained a love-hate relationship with the film that had made him a household name, long after it entered the cinematic pantheon.
One of the biggest problems, he told The New York Times in 2000, were all the Harold Chasen groupies.
“Everyone assumed I was that person,” he said. “I’ve been through the whole thing of being followed around. People used to come to my hotel and leave tombstones and pictures of dead babies. I try to talk to them, tell them they missed the point of the movie.”
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
No comments:
Post a Comment