Bud Cort

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Bud Cort
Born	Walter Edward Cox March 29, 1948 (1948-03-29) (age 61) New Rochelle, New York, U.S.
Years active	1967-Present

Bud Cort (born March 29, 1948) is an American film and stage actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his portrayal of Harold from Hal Ashby's 1971 film Harold and Maude.

Early life

Cort was born Walter Edward Cox in New Rochelle, New York, but eventually grew up in Rye, New York. His father, Joseph Parker Cox, was a bandleader and pianist, also a World War II veteran, and merchant. His mother, Alma Mary Cox (née Court), was a reporter and a merchant, who also worked in MGM studios. Cort has four siblings—three younger sisters and one older brother. His parents ran a clothing business in downtown Rye from the 1950s until the mid-1980s. Most of Bud's adolescence was spent caring for his father (who died in 1971) and sisters, reading and painting. As a teenager he was a local portrait painting prodigy and began taking acting lessons. He was educated in Catholic schools and graduated from Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle in 1966.

Career

Cort was discovered in a revue by director Robert Altman, who subsequently cast him in two of his movies, MASH and Brewster McCloud (in which he played the title role).

Cort next went on to his most famous role, as the suicide-obsessed Harold, in Harold and Maude. Though the film was not particularly successful at the time of its release, it later gained international cult status and now is acclaimed as an American film classic.

On Broadway, Cort appeared in the short-lived 1972 play Wise Child by Simon Gray. Cort was invited to live with the famous comedian Groucho Marx in his Bel-Air mansion, and was present at Marx's death in 1977.

In 1979, Bud’s life nearly ended in a car accident on the Hollywood Freeway. From behind, he collided with an abandoned car blocking a lane into which he was turning. Years of plastic surgery, enormous hospital bills, a lost court case, and the disruption of his career ensued.

Since, Cort has appeared in various film, stage and TV roles: Endgame, He Who Gets Slapped, Sledge Hammer!, The Chocolate War, The Big Empty, Theodore Rex, Dogma, But I'm A Cheerleader, Pollock, Arrested Development, The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Cort lent his voice to the computer in the movie Electric Dreams.

Cort performed Toyman, a Superman villain, over the course of various DCAU cartoons including Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited.

On the November 8, 2007 original episode of Ugly Betty, he made a guest appearance as the priest officiating at Wilhelmina Slater's ill-fated wedding.

Filmography

References

• Venice Magazine article, May 2005. (PDF)
• Salon.com's Bud Cort article, September 4, 1999
• Bud Cort interview, about his role in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, 2005

External links

• Bud Cort at the Internet Movie Database