All posts tagged: Bud

Owner of Buddy, Canine Star of ‘Air Bud,’ Was 63

Owner of Buddy, Canine Star of ‘Air Bud,’ Was 63

Published by Daniella Wilson

Kevin DiCicco, who as the owner of the basketball-playing golden retriever named Buddy helped tip off the lucrative, long-running Air Bud franchise, has died. He was 63. DiCicco, who suffered from respiratory issues and had a recent bout with homelessness, died Saturday in hospice care in San Diego, his brother Mark told TMZ. DiCicco adopted Buddy after finding him near his Sierra Nevada cabin in 1989. He trained the dog to play basketball, baseball, football, soccer, etc., and they appeared on America’s Funniest Home Videos and on installments of David Letterman’s “Stupid Pet Tricks.” “My obsession with sport, and his obsession with ball playing, the combination of the two, created this tremendous canine athlete,” DiCicco said of Buddy in a 2024 interview. He launched Air Bud Productions, and the first film, 1997’s Air Bud, directed by Charles Martin Smith, features Buddy as a circus dog who escapes his cruel clown master (Michael Jeter) and leads Josh Framm’s (Kevin Zegers) school basketball team to a championship. The family-friendly movie, from Keystone Entertainment and Disney’s Miramax label, …

Bud Cort, Snubbed by Oscars, Deserved More From Hollywood

Bud Cort, Snubbed by Oscars, Deserved More From Hollywood

Published by Daniella Wilson

It was a startling omission. An actor barely out of his teens when he burst onto the scene in Hal Ashby’s 1971 cult black comedy Harold and Maude, Bud Cort made such an indelible impression that both he and the film he starred in (as Ruth Gordon’s decades-younger acolyte/lover) were catapulted to iconic status almost overnight. His was the kind of success story Hollywood lives for—yet this year, on the heels of his death in February, the Oscars telecast did not see fit to acknowledge Bud Cort in its In Memoriam section. Despite his place in the hearts of millions who continue to treasure Harold, he didn’t even merit a split-screen cameo. If Bud were still alive, I can picture him responding to the snub with a casual mention of the telecast’s poor ratings, a twinkle in his eye. It was 1984. A decade and change after the performance that first set his professional life ablaze, Bud wanted to write his memoirs. I was an editor at a small press, and a writer we both …

Harold And Maude Actor Bud Cort Has Died, Aged 77

Harold And Maude Actor Bud Cort Has Died, Aged 77

Published by Sam Flores

Bud Cort, the American actor best known for his leading performance in the cult 1970s movie Harold And Maude, has died at the age of 77. On Wednesday evening, his long-term friend, the writer and producer Dorian Hannaway, told Variety that Bud had died in Connecticut following what the outlet described as a “long illness”. After being born and raised in New York, Bud – whose legal name was Walter Edward Cox – moved across the US to Los Angeles as a young man to pursue a career in acting, beginning his on-screen career in the late 1960s with small roles in films like Sweet Charity. He was then discovered by the acclaimed Robert Altman, who cast him in the dark comedy M*A*S*H and made him the lead in Brewster McCloud. In the early 1970s, Bud was cast as the male lead in Harold And Maude, which centred around a young man who strikes up a friendship – and, later, romantic relationship – with a much older woman. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon as the …

Bud Cort death: Harold and Maude star dies aged 77

Bud Cort death: Harold and Maude star dies aged 77

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Bud Cort, the actor best known for playing one of the title characters in the 1971 black comedy Harold and Maude, has died. He was 77. Cort began his film career after he was discovered by director Robert Altman, who cast him in two films in 1970: M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud. His later film appearances included roles in Heat, Dogma and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Variety reports that he died in Connecticut after a long illness. No cause of death has yet been announced. Cort was born Walter Edward Cox in Rye, New York on March 29, 1948. He changed his name due to distinguish himself from the actor Wally Cox. After Altman used him in a small role in the war satire M*A*S*H, he then gave the 22-year-old the lead role of a reclusive teenager living in a …