Always hold out for something better, that's today's lesson. I had four potential performing artists flagged whom I might have written about this morning but I could work up an enthusiasm for none of them -- and I had already written about Joe Cook, Joseph Cawthorn, Albert Von Tilzer, Pearl Bailey, Jackie Vernon, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Warner Baxter, Arthur O'Connell, Phil Foster, Frank Tinney, Scott Wilson, and some others, all born on March 29. But I thought I'd take another look, and discovered that it was also the birthday of Bud Cort (Walter Cox, b. 1948)
Cort is an undeniably excellent actor (and, in his youth, had been a good looking one, as well) but it is his very oddness that has undoubtedly given hope to thousands of unconventional show biz aspirants. As a leading man, he made Dustin Hoffman seem like Gregory Peck, and yet he starred in films! I've always loved how Bud Cort pulls together the Old and the New. He was a hippie who spent some serious quality time sitting at the feet of octogenarians. Now's he's the Old himself of course, but in his youth he swam amongst stars of the 1920s and '30s and now he carries a bit of their legend around with him.
Cort was the son of a Rye, New York clothier and professional musician. He took his professional name from his mother Alma Court, who had written for Life Magazine, and worked for MGM. (His own name was too close of comedian Wally Cox, who was in a way, a similar type, as well). Cort studied with Bill Hickey at HB Studios as a teenager, attended private school in Ireland for time, then enrolled at NYU Tisch to study scenic design as the acting program was full up. He worked up a cabaret act with Jeannie Berlin (Elaine May's daughter), who was later succeeded by Judy Engles, His appearance in an off-broadway revue called Free Fall put him on the radar of Robert Altman and thus began his film career. He was a key part of the ensemble in M*A*S*H (1970), then starred in the highly eccentric Brewster McCloud (1970). He was also invited to be in cast of McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), but passed so that he co-star in Hal Ashby's and Colin Higgins' black comedy classic Harold and Maude (1971) opposite Ruth Gordon. It's often forgotten that he was in some other films at around this time, The Strawberry Statement (1970) with Bruce Davison, Kim Darby, and Bob Balaban; The Traveling Executioner (1971) with Stacy Keach; and Roger Corman's satire Gas-s-s-s (1971) with Ben Vereen, Cindy Williams, Talia Shire, and Country Joe McDonald. This is quite a solid countercultural resume. He also played from time to time on the Strip with a rock band named Bud Cort and the Medflies.
The preceding stretch is the best known phase of Cort's career, and really a kind of early peak. It might be natural to wonder why the trajectory didn't continue upward immediately following that. But several reasons readily become apparent. Though Harold and Maude eventually became a cult classic, it wasn't a hit upon release, nor was Brewster McCloud. In early 1972 Cort starred in Simon Gray's play Wise Child opposite Donald Pleasance on Broadway, but it closed almost right away. He appeared (uncredited) in a 1973 Columbo episode entitle "Double Exposure" with Robert Culp, Chuck McCann, Louise Latham, and Danny Goldman.
The early to mid '70s would seem to be "lost" years, but we Marx Brothers fans know where Cort was, for it's been well chronicled in books like Steve Stoliar's Raised Eyebrows, and Charlotte Chandler's Hello I Must Be Going. He was a long time "houseguest" at Chez Groucho! Prior to that he had been a member of the health food cult "The Source" led by a guru named "Father Yod". When he showed up at Groucho's place, he reports, Groucho slammed the door on him, then reopened it and said, "I'm sorry, I thought you were Charles Manson". Apparently Erin Fleming convinced Grouch he was someone worth keeping around, and so he stayed there for quite some time, as part of the scene at Groucho's.
It's said that Cort turned down the role of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which he must kick himself, because it took him quite some time to hoist himself back up into a mainstream career. In place of Cuckoo's Nest he starred in an Italian film called The Hallucinating Trip (1975). After this he co-starred in quite an excellent TV adaptation of F. Scott Fitzegerald's Bernice Bobs Her Hair, directed by Joan Micklin Silver and featuring Shelley Duvall (who'd made her screen debut in Brewster McCloud), Veronica Cartwright, and Polly Holliday (Flo from Alice). He then appeared in two films with Keir Dullea of 2001: A Space Odyssey: Why Shoot the Teacher? (1977), a a period film directed by Silvio Narizzano (best known for Georgie Girl), and a 1980 TV version of Aldous Huckley's Brave New World. But all in all, this was a pretty dire stretch. In 1979 he appeared as the title character in Son of Hitler with Peter Cushing. This was followed by Die Laughing (1980) with Robbie Benson and Hysterical (1983) with the Hudson Brothers. He was also the title character in a low-budget comedy called The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud, with Carol Kane, Klaus KInski, Marisa Berenson, Carroll Baker, and Dick Shawn.
As often happens, horror and sci fi seemed to be a pathway back up the ladder for him. Amy Holden Jones (Slumber Party Massacre) cast him in Love Letters (1984) with Jamie Lee Curtis (then best known for Halloween). The same year he was the voice of the computer in Electric Dreams. Tobe Hooper cast him his remake of Invaders from Mars, and during the same years he was in episodes of Tales from the Darkside, Tales of the Unexpected, Bates Motel, and The Twilight Zone. Then came Adam Simon's Brain Dead (1990)
In 1998 he was in the Ed Wood fan tribute I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, and for several years he seemed to have lots of cachet in prominent indie films and even some mainstream ones. These include Sweet Jane (1998), Dogma (1999), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000), Coyote Ugly (2000), Pollock (2000), and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisou (2004). He's appeared on shows like Ugly Betty and Criminal Minds, and done lots of cartoon voice-overs.
His theatre and radio credits have included an award winning performance as Clov in Beckett's Endgame, An Evening with Truman Capote, a one man reading of Catcher in the Rye, and the stage adaptation of Demon Wine, with Tom Waites, Bill Pullman, Carol Kane and Philip Baker Hall.
He's 75 today -- plenty of time for more movies, of Groucho and Ruth Gordon are any judge!
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