Saying Goodbye to 'Harold and Maude's' Bud Cort
The actor died Wednesday at 77
February 11, 2026
The sad news that former teen idol James Van Der Beek had died of cancer at 48 dominated the news today, but there was another death of an actor whose most famous role was also among his first — we lost the ultimate offbeat actor, Bud Cort.
Cort, who was 77, died after what was termed a “lengthy illness.”
Back in 1971, shortly after being discovered by Robert Altman and featured in both M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud (both 1970), Cort gave one of the most indelible performances of the decade in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude.
He played a suicidal 20-year-old student who strikes up an out-of-nowhere romance with a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor played by the great Ruth Gordon, who’d just won the Oscar two years before for Rosemary’s Baby (1968).
The existential comedy was unique — and probably before its time. While Cort was nominated for a Golden Globe, the film received negative reviews and failed to recoup. That is, until it built a cult following; it was in the black by 1983 and in the National Film Registry by 1996.
Cort was born Walter Cox March 29, 1948, in Rye, New York. By age 14, he was receiving coaching in acting from William Hickey, later so memorable in Prizzi’s Honor (1985). A Broadway fiend and scenic-arts major, he made uncredited appearances in Up the Down Staircase (1967) and Sweet Charity (1969), it took Altman to elevate him, but it was Harold and Maude that put him on the map.
Cort’s brand was weird, which he could do in his sleep, but he was also excellent at weird with heart.
Among his films, he was in Roger Corman’s Gas-s-s-s (1971), Pumping Iron (1977; scenes deleted, but I need to see those), The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984), provided the voice of the computer in Electric Dreams (1984), Invaders from Mars (1986), Out of the Dark (1989) with Divine, Heat (1995), Dogma (1999), But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), Coyote Ugly (2000), Pollock (2000) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004).
His TV work was no less eclectic, including Bates Motel (1987), And the Band Played On (1993), Ugly Betty (2007) and Criminal Minds (2010). He had a big following as the voice of Toyman in the DC Animated Universe.
He’s survived by his brother, three sisters and all their families.
Cort’s friend Roslyn Kind told Variety:
“I was only 14 when I met Bud at the backstage door at my sister’s [Barbra Streisand] play. He was majoring in art at the time in high school. We became close friends who shared our interest in entertainment. When I got married, Bud and our songwriter friend, Bruce Roberts, wrote a special song that was performed at the ceremony.”
She closed with, “His unique spirit will always be with me.” ⚡️
Did you see Alison Arngrim’s IG? She posted a photo of Cort with her mom.