Walter Edward Cox was born on March 29, 1948 in New Rochelle, New York, but grew up in near-by Rye, New York. Bud's family consisted of his three younger sisters, an older brother, his mother, and his ailing father, who suffered from multiple sclerosis. His mother, Alma Mary Cox (maiden name: Court), was a reporter and merchant, who also worked for MGM studios. His father, Joseph Parker Cox, was a bandleader, pianist, and merchant. Most of his adolescence was spent caring for his father and sisters, reading, and painting.
As a teenager he was a local portrait painting prodigy. This interest developed into study at New York University, where he majored in design from 1967 to 1969. Soon, he began "moonlighting" between classes, doing television commercials and as a delivery boy in a soap opera called The Doctors. Eventually, he quit school and started a popular nightclub comedy act. It was while in a comedy review called Free Fall, at Upstairs at the Downstairs in 1969, that he was "discovered" by director Robert Altman, who then cast him in M*A*S*H, and later in Brewster McCloud. Also, around this time, he made appearances in such television shows as
t;The Governor and J.J.," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," and "Room 222".
Soon after he made Brewster McCloud came the 1971 black comedy classic, Harold and Maude, which practically launched his career. In retrospect, Bud sees this role as a "blessing and a curse" in that he then had the pull to get noticed, but also found himself getting typecast. Around this time Bud also became what is known in show business as a "hard sell", perhaps known for what he turned down as for the roles he accepted. In the bio from the 1979 Paramount Pictures re-release of "Harold and Maude" Bud stated that "I wanted to grow as an actor. It was more important for me to make a never released political thriller in Rome: (Roma Drogata: La Polizia Non Puo Intervenire - aka Hallucination Strip), than to do "Harold Meets Claude". Turning down an opportunity to star in his own T.V. series in 1979, Bud, instead, chose to read -- gratis -- J.D. Salinger's immortal "Catcher In The Rye" for L.A.'s progressive FM station KPFK. According to Jay Kugelman, the producer of the radio broadcast, "Bud was Holden. It was eerie." Instead of accepting a slew of "weirdo" roles, including one in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Bud became heavily involved in the theatre.
During most of the 1970's, Bud lived a very colorful off-screen life, some aspects of which he told to Tom Shales in a 1977 interview in Oui Magazine. For example, he had a stint with a quasi-religious group called 'The Source' and after leaving them, was later terrorized by a crazed Vietnam veteran:
"They kept putting me on a ninety-day diet where I could eat only seven kinds of food," he recalls. "I had long hair and a beard then, and I looked like D'Artagnan; I also had a great fur coat that they wanted to get their hands on. I used to sleep in it. I had a standing invitation to join them for the end of the world. I said, 'No, thanks, I'm going back into showbiz.'
"They used to meditate next to a microphone in the parking lot of the restaurant. They said to me, 'Bud, your masculine and feminine centers are not balanced.' It was a very primal moment for me. They said, 'We have a ceremony to combat this. Be here Friday at 3:30 in
t; Instead of accepting a slew of "weirdo" roles, including one in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Bud became heavily involved in the theatre.
During most of the 1970's, Bud lived a very colorful off-screen life, some aspects of which he told to Tom Shales in a 1977 interview in Oui Magazine. For example, he had a stint with a quasi-religious group called 'The Source' and after leaving them, was later terrorized by a crazed Vietnam veteran:
"They kept putting me on a ninety-day diet where I could eat only seven kinds of food," he recalls. "I had long hair and a beard then, and I looked like D'Artagnan; I also had a great fur coat that they wanted to get their hands on. I used to sleep in it. I had a standing invitation to join them for the end of the world. I said, 'No, thanks, I'm going back into showbiz.'
"They used to meditate next to a microphone in the parking lot of the restaurant. They said to me, 'Bud, your masculine and feminine centers are not balanced.' It was a very primal moment for me. They said, 'We have a ceremony to combat this. Be here Friday at 3:30 in the morning and we'll leave for Griffith Park.' I said, 'Oh, what the hell, I'm not doing anything at 3:30 Friday morning,' so I went. We climbed and climbed and climbed to a very, very high place overlooking all of California. We all joined hands and started doing a breathing exercise they call the breath of fire. It's very intense. I fainted twice.
"And then, suddenly, I felt this blinding white light shooting through me. I felt like I was really going to leave my body and on to a higher vibration. I thought this was it. And just as I was getting ready to leave my bod, I hear this voice say, 'What the fuck are you people doing down there?' The blinding white light was not my life force--it was the spotlight from a police helicopter."
The health freaks moved to Hawaii, where their leader jumped off of a cliff and died. Cort moved to Malibu Beach, where he was traumatized by a Vietnam veteran who broke into his house and "terrorized" him for two and a half hours. The guy didn't steal anything; in fact, he left his wallet, complete with identification. "He decided I was crazier than he was," says Cort.
He also spent many years, living on and off, in the late Groucho Marx's mansion in Bel Air, California. "He was my idol -- I was his chorus boy -- he had me singing for everyone from Mae West to S.J. Perelman to Bob Dylan". In 1979, Bud’s life and career was nearly destroyed by a near-fatal car accident on the Hollywood Freeway after returning home from a Frank Sinatra concert when he rear-ended a a car which was abandoned in the lane he was turning into. Consequently, he spent years enduring plastic surgery, enormous hospital bills, a losing court case, and the disruption of his blooming career.
With the 1980's and 1990's, although Bud kept up a steady workload, immersing himself in voice-over work, radio and nightclub performances, theatre, small roles in television, and roles in independent and B-rated movies, of which in the latter, he was often uncredited, there remained a decline of presence in mainstream cinema and television productions. His last leading role was in the 1991 independent film, Ted & Venus, of which he co-wrote the screenplay and directed. In 1996, Bud received rave reviews for his role as the lead in "He, Who Gets
