Bud Cort, American actor/comedian, was born Walter Edward Cox in New
Rochelle, New York. The second of five children, he grew up in Rye, New
York, the son of Joseph P. Cox, an orchestra leader, pianist, and owner
of a successful men's clothing store in Rye, and Alma M. Court a former
newspaper and Life magazine reporter and an executive asst. at M.G.M.
in New York City. From early childhood on, Bud displayed a remarkable
acting ability and appeared in countless school plays and community
theatre. Also a talented painter, he earned extra money doing portraits
at art fairs and by commission to the people in Rye. However, he knew
acting was his real dream and began riding trains into New York City at
the age of 14 to begin studying with his first teacher Bill Hickey at
the HB Studios in Greenwich Village.
Upon graduation from Iona Prep School run by the Christian Brothers of
Ireland, Bud applied to the NYU School of the Arts, now known as Tisch.
Unfortunately, the acting department was full but after seeing Bud's
art portfolio he was admitted as a scenic design major in 1967. Bud
continued to study with Bill Hickey and secretly began to work in
commercials, - off Broadway Theater, and the soap opera, "The Doctors."
He formed a comedy team with actress Jeannie Berlin, and later with
Judy Engles, performing Bud's original comedy material all over
Manhattan's burgeoning nightclub scene. Bud and Judy won first place
during amateur night at the famed Village Gate and were signed to a
management contract with the club's owner. Soon after, while appearing
at the famed Upstairs at the Downstairs in the musical revue "Free
Fall," Bud was spotted by Robert Altman who was in New York looking for
actors for his film "M. A. S. H." Bud was hired and from that went on
to play the title role in Altman's next film "Brewster McCloud."
A quirky May-Dec. love story, "Harold and Maude," next saw Cort
opposite Ruth Gordon in arguably his most famous role. After a confused
reception, the film went on to become not only one of the most
successful cult movies in history, but eventually was crowned an
American Film Classic. Bud was also awarded the French equivalent of
the Oscar, the Crystal Star, for Best Actor of the Year. He was also
nominated for a Golden Globe and a British Academy Award.
Resisting type casting, Bud turned down the role of Billy Bibbit in
Milos Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" and returned to the
theater. He made his Broadway debut opposite Donald Pleasance in Simon
Gray's "Wise Child" at the Helen Hayes Theatre in 1971. Again he
resisted being type cast by Hollywood and finally made his first film
five years after "Harold and Maude," in the political thriller
"Darkness of the Brain" or "Flash" opposite Marcel Bozzuffi (The
Conformist).
Title roles in "Why Shoot the Teacher?" (one of the most successful
films in Canadian history), "The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud," (a
comedy with Klaus Kinski and Carol Kane), and "She Dances Alone" (a
documentary/fantasy about the real life daughter of Vaslav Nijinski,
with Max Von Sydow) followed and led to countless more films. His
latest films being the Wes Anderson comedy "The Life Aquatic" (with
Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett) as well as "The Number 23" (with Jim
Carrey). Besides his film and theater work, Bud has sung all over the
world from Carnegie Hall in New York, to the Alcazar in Paris. He was
the youngest actor ever given an homage at the Cinematheque in Paris in
an evening hosted by the great comedic actor, Jacques Tati.
Bud lived as a house guest for many years with his dear friend Groucho
Marx. In 1979 Bud survived a near fatal car crash on the Hollywood
Freeway. He continued working in film and theater and co-founded the LA
Classic Theatre Works with, among others, Richard Dreyfuss and Rene
Auberjonois. Bud performed the entire J. D. Salinger novel "The Catcher
in the Rye" live in-studio, as well as the one man show, "An Evening
with Truman Capote" for the radio station KCRW. He appeared with Tom
Waits in the L.A. Premiere of Thomas Babe's "Demon Wine" and was
nominated for the LA Theatre Critics Best Actor award for his
performance in Samuel Beckett's "ENDGAME," which he first played in New
York at the Cherry Lane Theatre. For his performance as Clov, Bud was
awarded the Dramalogue Award as Best Actor.
Recent films include Kevin Smith's "Dogma", Ed Harris' "Pollock", and
his own controversial film, "Ted and Venus" (Col. Tri Star Home Video)
which Bud directed, co-wrote, and starred in with Woody Harrelson and
Gena Rowlands and which initially, like "Harold and Maude" disturbed
some critics and yet was hailed as a "tiny masterpiece," and "a
courageous film, Bud Cort's finest performance."
Bud is a member of the Director's Unit of the Actor's Studio. Besides
Bill Hickey, he has studied extensively with Stella Adler, Joan
Darling, David Craig, and Del Close of 2nd City. Bud recently starred
in televisions "Arrested Development," "Funny or Die Presents", the
highly regarded "Mosley Lane" episode of "Criminal Minds and Chris
Elliot's "Eagleheart" ("Exit Wound the Gift Shop).