Bud Cort Dies: ‘Harold And Maude’ Actor Was 77
By Greg Evans
Bud Cort, whose indelible portrayal of the gawky, death-obsessed young man barely out of his teens who falls in love with a spirited 79-year-old Holocaust survivor played by Ruth Gordon in 1971’s Harold and Maude, died Wednesday in Connecticut following a lengthy illness. He was 77.
Born Walter Edward Cox on March 29, 1948, in Rye, NY, the young actor — instantly recognizable with his owlish looks and rail-thin frame — was discovered and cast by director Robert Altman in two 1970 hit films MASH and Brewster McCloud. He would go on to play character roles in such films as Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) among others, but it was his co-starring role in Hal Ashby’s midnight movie classic Harold and Maude that would establish his place in the cinema of the 1970s.