Bud Cort (born March 29, 1948) is an American film and stage actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his portrayal of Harold from Hal Ashby`s 1971 film Harold and Maude. Cort was born Walter Edward Cox in New Rochelle, New York, but eventually grew up near Rye, New York. His father, Joseph Parker Cox, who was a bandleader and pianist, also a World War II veteran, and merchant. His mother, Alma Mary Cox (née Court), was a reporter and a merchant, who also worked in MGM studios. Cort has 4 siblings, 3 younger sisters, and 1 older brother. His parents ran a clothing business in downtown Rye from the 1950s until the mid-1980s. Most of Bud`s adolescence was spent caring for his father (who died in 1971) and sisters, reading and painting. As a teenager he was a local portrait painting prodigy and began taking acting lessons. He was educated in Catholic schools and graduated from Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle in 1966. Cort was discovered in a revue by director Robert Altman, who subsequently cast him in two of his movies, MASH and Brewster McCloud (in which he played the title role). Cort next went on to his most famous role, as the suicide-obsessed Harold, in Harold and Maude. Though the film was not particularly successful at the time of its release, it later gained international cult status and now is acclaimed as an American film classic.