BUD CORT Biography - Other artists & entretainers

 
 

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BUD CORT
       

Bud Cort, an American actor, was born Walter Edward Cox on March 29, 1948 in New Rochelle, New York. (Some sources say Cort was born in 1950.)

       

He grew up in Rye, NY, with his mother Alma Mary Cort (whose maiden name he would later use professionally), his father, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, three sisters and an older brother. His father was a bandleader and pianist, his mother a reporter. He graduated from Iona Prep School in New Rochelle in 1966.

       

He entered New York University to study design in 1967, but dropped out in 1969 to pursue acting. His first role was as an extra in the film version of “Up the Down Staircase,” and he then went on to study acting with Stella Adler and do television commercials, as well as stand-up comedy in Los Angeles. He was then cast in two Robert Altman movies, M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud.

       

Cort next went on to his most famous role, as the suicide obsessed Harold, in Harold and Maude The film was not a hit when it came out, but later gained cult status. Cort feared being typecast after playing Harold; he has stated that he was offered the Jack Nicholson role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next on “a silver platter,” but he didn’t want to be stereotyped as “a crazy.” Instead he turned to a career in theater.

       

In 1979, Cort was in a serious car accident in Los Angeles, and underwent reconstructive surgery. He subsequently lost a court case against the driver who hit him, and suffered career difficulties. He directed and starred in the film Ted and Venus, which garnered unfavorable reviews, as well as doing radio and voiceover work.

       

Cort continues to act, and recently appeared in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, Pollock, and the latest film by director Wes Anderson.