Early life

Cort was born in New Rochelle, New York, and grew up in Rye, New York. His father, Joseph Parker Cox, was a bandleader and pianist, as well as a World War II veteran and merchant. His mother, Alma Mary (née Court), was a reporter and a merchant, who also worked in MGM studios. Cort has four siblings—three younger sisters and one older brother. His parents ran a clothing business in downtown Rye from the 1950s until the mid-1980s.

Most of Cort's adolescence was spent caring for his sisters and father; his father had multiple sclerosis and died of it in 1971. He also engaged in 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.

Career

Cox (renamed Cort, a variation of his mother's maiden name, as the name Wally Cox was already taken) 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.

On Broadway, Cort appeared in the short-lived 1972 play Wise Child by Simon Gray. Cort was invited to live with the famous comedian Groucho Marx in his Bel-Air mansion, and was present at Marx's death in 1977.

In 1979, Cort nearly died in a car accident on the Hollywood Freeway where he collided with an abandoned car blocking a lane into which he was turning. He broke an arm and a leg and sustained a concussion and a fractured skull. His face was severely lacerated and his lower lip nearly severed. Years of plastic surgery, substantial hospital bills, a lost court case, and the disruption of his career ensued.

In 1989 he directed the "Hôtel de Paris" episode of the second series of the ZDF German television documentary series Hotels, about famous hotels around the world.

Cort has since appeared in a number of film, stage and TV roles: Endgame, He Who Gets Slapped, Sledge Hammer!, The Chocolate War, The Big Empty, Theodore Rex, Dogma, But I'm A Cheerleader, Pollock, The Twilight Zone, The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Cort lent his voice to the computer in the movie Electric Dreams.

Cort voiced Toyman, a Superman villain, over the course of various DCAU series including Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited, as well as the character Josiah Wormwood in an episode of the earlier DCAU production Batman: The Animated Series. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the Arrested Development episode "Fakin' It", hosting a daytime court show called Bud Cort, a competitor to a similar daytime court show in the series called Mock Trial with J. Reinhold.

On the November 8, 2007 episode of Ugly Betty, Cort made a guest appearance as the priest officiating at Wilhelmina Slater's ill-fated wedding. In 2010, he guest-starred on Criminal Minds in the episode "Mosley Lane." Cort played an elderly pedophile Roger Roycewood, who along with his wife, kidnapped and killed young children. In an ironic homage to his most famous role, see Harold and Maude, Roycewood hanged himself in an apparent suicide. In 2012, he appeared as the artist "Gleeko" in the episode "Exit Wound the Gift Shop" in the second season of Eagleheart.

Cort's voice can be heard as The King in the English-language version of The Little Prince (2015). The film premiered out of competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and won the César Award for Best Animated Film in February 2016. It will become available to U.S. audiences through Netflix later in 2016.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1967	Up the Down Staircase	Student	Uncredited
1969	Sweet Charity	Hippie	Uncredited
1970	MASH	Pvt. Lorenzo Boone
	The Strawberry Statement	Elliot—Coxswain
	The Traveling Executioner	Jimmy Croft
	Brewster McCloud	Brewster McCloud	Nominated—Laurel Award for Male Star of Tomorrow
1971	Gas-s-s-s	Hooper
	Harold and Maude	Harold Parker Chasen	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1973	Columbo	Milt (the police photographer)	Episode: "Double Exposure"; uncredited
1975	Hallucination Strip	Massimo Monaldi
1977	Why Shoot the Teacher?	Max Brown
1977	Pumping iron	Himself
1978	Son of Hitler	Willi Hitler
1980	Brave New World	Bernard Marx
1980	Die Laughing	Mueller
1981	She Dances Alone	Director
1983	Hysterical	Dr. John
1984	The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud	Sigmund Freud
	Love Letters	Danny De Fronso
	Electric Dreams	Edgar, the Computer	Voice
	Maria's Lovers	Harvey
1986	Telephone
	Invaders from Mars	Mark Weinstein
1987	Bates Motel	Alex West
1988	Love at Stake	Parson Babcock
	The Chocolate War	Brother Jacques
1989	Out of the Dark	Doug Stringer
1990	Going Under	McNally	Uncredited
	Brain Dead	Jack Halsey
1991	Ted & Venus	Ted Whitley
1992	Batman:The Animated Series	Josiah Wormwood	Voice
1995	Girl in the Cadillac	Bud
	The Mask: The Animated Series	Fritz Drizzle/The Tempest	Voice
	Heat	Solenko, Restaurant Manager	Uncredited
1996	Theodore Rex	Spinner
	Superman: the Animated Series	Toyman	Voice
1998	I Woke Up Early the Day I Died	Shopkeeper	(as Lord Heinrich "Binky" Alcoa III)
	Sweet Jane	Dr. Geiler
1999	Dogma	John Doe Jersey (aka God)
	But I'm a Cheerleader	Peter Bloomfield
2000	South of Heaven, West of Hell	Agent Otts
	The Million Dollar Hotel	Shorty
	Coyote Ugly	Romero
	Pollock	Howard Putzel
2001	Made	Bernardo, Gay House Owner	Uncredited
2003	The Big Empty	Neely
	Static Shock	Toyman	Voice
2004	The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou	Bill Ubell	Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2006	Justice League	Toyman	Voice
	Arrested Development	Himself
2007	The Number 23	Dr. Sirius Leary	Uncredited
2010	Criminal Minds	Roger Roycewood
2012	Eagleheart	Gleeko
2014	Dream Corps LLC	Carl Kwartz
2015	The Little Prince	The King	Voice

[ Source: Wikipedia ]