Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) Dies at 77

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Bud Cort, Harold and Maude Star, Dies at 77
by Wesley Stenzel
February 11, 2026


Bud Cort, the character actor best known for starring in Harold and Maude, has died.

The actor's friend, Dorian Hannaway, told Entertainment Weekly that Cort died at 77 on Wednesday in Connecticut after a long illness.




Cort's big break came in 1970 when Robert Altman cast him in the seminal war dramedy M*A*S*H. In the film, Cort portrayed Private Lorenzo Boone, a nervous young corpsman whom Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) berates after the death of a patient.

The character was later played by Bruno Kirby and Robert Gooden in the M*A*S*H TV show.




That same year, Cort played the title role in Altman's bizarre black comedy Brewster McCloud, which also marked the screen debut of Shelley Duvall.

The film, and Cort's Brewster, epitomized all the possibilities of the New Hollywood movement that emerged in the late '60s and early '70s, which empowered auteur filmmakers to make complex, unusual films that would have been unthinkable a decade prior.




The following year, Cort headlined Harold and Maude, one of the defining dramedies of the 1970s. The film saw Cort play Harold, a young man who is obsessed with death and befriends and falls in love with Maude, a joyful 79-year-old Holocaust survivor portrayed by Ruth Gordon.

Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Colin Higgins, Harold and Maude also exemplified the changing tides of '70s Hollywood with its distinctive tone and taboo subject matter.

https://ew.com/bud-cort-dead-harold-...as-77-11905098

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