Bud Cort, Snubbed by Oscars, Deserved More From Hollywood
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 …
