From Newsgroup: alt.obituaries
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/movies/bud-cort-dead.html
Bud Cort, Who Starred in 1971rCOs rCyHarold and Maude,rCO Dies at 77
The role, one of his first, made him a household name and a film idol of
the anti-establishment 1970s. But it also limited his growth as an actor.
By Clay Risen
Feb. 11, 2026
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 GordonrCOs 79-year-old, happy-go-lucky Holocaust survivor
named Maude in the 1971 off-kilter romantic comedy rCLHarold and Maude,rCY 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 MauderCOs arm, left over from her time in a Nazi concentration camp.
Though initially a critical and commercial flop rCo Variety said that it rCLhas all the fun and gaiety of a burning orphanagerCY rCo 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 rCLHarold and Maude,rCY 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 rCLM*A*S*H.rCY
Mr. Altman liked Mr. CortrCOs acting enough that he immediately gave him the title role in his next film, rCLBrewster McCloud,rCY 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 filmrCOs 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 rCLOne Flew Over the CuckoorCOs Nest,rCY 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.
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 rCLPumping IronrCY (1977), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, from which his only scene was ultimately
cut.
In 1979, he played the lead in rCLSon of Hitler,rCY 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 rCLColumbo,rCY a reboot of rCLThe Twilight ZonerCY and the comedy- drama rCLUgly Betty.rCY He also had minor parts in movies like the crime thriller rCLHeatrCY (1995), which starred Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and the Bill Murray comedy rCLThe Life Aquatic With Steve ZissourCY (2004).
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 didnrCOt like his 1977 film rCLWhy Shoot the Teacher,rCY a comedy-drama set during the Depression, Mr. Cort got up to leave.
rCLI donrCOt want to talk to anyone who didnrCOt love the movie,rCY Mr. Cort said.
rCLI canrCOt believe that I opened up my personal life to you, and then you tell me you didnrCOt like this wonderful movie.rCY
The reporter, who wrote about the encounter anyway, asked Mr. Cort if he couldnrCOt separate his personal and professional lives.
rCLItrCOs the same thing,rCY 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.
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 rCLUp the Down StaircaserCY (1967), the high school drama starring Sandy Dennis, and rCLSweet Charity,rCY 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.
rCLEveryone assumed I was that person,rCY he said. rCLIrCOve 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.rCY
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2