Bud Cort

Bud Cort (born Walter Edward Cox in New York on March 29, 1948; died Feb. 11, 2026) burst onto the scene in films with Robert Altman, including MASH (1970) and Brewster McCloud (1971). But he is best know for starring in Hal Ashby’s 1971 dark comedy-romance Harold and Maude, playing a 19-year-old who overcomes his death obsession thanks to a romance with a 79-year-old woman (Ruth Gordon). The film was not a hit with audiences or critics but built an audience via college showings and has endured. At age 14 Cort knew he wanted to be an actor and studied with William Hickey. He didn’t work for several years after Harold and Maude but continued to do theater and eventually appeared in such films as Kevin Smith’s Dogma (2000), in which he played God; Ed Harris’s Pollock (2000) and Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004).