Bud Cort Dies: ‘Harold and Maude’ Actor Was 77

Actor Bud Cort, who was best known for the role of macabre-minded Harold in Hal Ashby‘s Harold and Maude and the sensitive Private Boone in Robert Altman‘s M*A*S*H, died Wednesday, February 11, after a long illness. He was 77.

Born Walter Edward Cox on March 29, 1948, in Rye, New York, Cort was discovered by director Robert Altman while performing in a revue, a chance encounter that would change the course of his career. Altman was immediately struck by the young actor’s unusual presence and gentle, slightly otherworldly quality, and in 1970 he cast him in two films that would introduce Cort to movie audiences, M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud.