Bud Cort, who played one of the title roles in the 1971 age gap romance Harold and Maude, has died in Connecticut at the age of 77.
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His career began when he was discovered by New Hollywood titan Robert Altman, who gave him a supporting part in M*A*S*H and the lead in Brewster McCloud.
However his best-remembered role was in Harold and Maude as a 20-year-old who keeps trying to kill himself until he gets a new lease on life from his relationship with an ebullient 80-year-old woman played by Ruth Gordon.
In 1979, Cort suffered a near-fatal car crash that mangled his face and broke several of his bones, requiring extensive plastic surgery and a years-long break from movies.
After he eventually returned to the screen, he acted in such beloved projects as Arrested Development and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
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Cort's friend Dorian Hannaway revealed that the actor died Wednesday after a lengthy illness, the nature of which has not been publicly disclosed, via Variety.
Bud Cort, who played one of the title roles in the 1971 age gap romance Harold and Maude, has died in Connecticut at the age of 77; pictured in Harold and Maude with Ruth Gordon
Cort's friend Dorian Hannaway revealed that the actor died Wednesday after a lengthy illness, the nature of which has not been publicly disclosed; Cort pictured 2011
Cort was born Walter Cox in 1948 in Westchester County - just outside New York City - and initially aspired to become a priest.
In the 1960s he drifted into nightclub comedy and then into acting, changing his name to Bud Cort because there was already a famous comic actor called Wally Cox.
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His ship came in when Robert Altman discovered him in a revue and gave him a supporting role in two 1970 movies - including M*A*S*H, a film about military medical staff in the Korean War, starring Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould.
The same year, Cort played the lead role in Altman's comedy Brewster McCloud, about a young bookish man who lives under the Houston Astrodome and dreams of building his own wings, only to become a suspect in a strangulation murder spree.
In 1971, he appeared in the movie for which he remains most adored by fans - Harold and Maude, starring him and Ruth Gordon in the title roles of a 20-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman who strike up an unlikely romance.
Cort remembered that the movie's director Hal Ashby, with whom he became close, 'made me feel so warm and welcome' when he arrived for his audition.
'He said: "This is Colin Higgins who wrote the script, this is Chuck Mulvehill who's producing it," and I just looked at all three of them and said: "I'm playing this part,"' Cort told the Guardian. 'And Hal laughed and said: "I guess you are!"'
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Cort developed a close bond with Gordon shortly after the movie wrapped when his father succumbed to multiple sclerosis at the age of 50.
His career began when he was discovered by New Hollywood titan Robert Altman, who gave him a supporting part in M*A*S*H and the lead in Brewster McCloud (pictured)
Harold and Maude starred him as a 20-year-old who keeps trying to kill himself until he gets a new lease on life from his relationship with an ebullient 80-year-old woman
Their movie's offbeat romance and black humor - such as the handling of Harold's constant suicide attempts - ultimately led to critical and commercial disaster
However, over the years, Harold and Maude steadily gathered a cult fanbase so besotted with the picture that Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann named their daughter Maude Apatow
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The actor recalled that Gordon phoned him and said: "Oh, honey, let me tell you about the day my father died." And suddenly we were the characters we had played.'
He fondly added: 'From that moment on, that was one of the most important friendships I've ever had. She was a great woman.'
Their movie's offbeat romance and black humor - such as the handling of Harold's constant suicide attempts - ultimately led to critical and commercial disaster.
However, over the years, Harold and Maude steadily gathered a cult fanbase so besotted with the picture that two of its Hollywood admirers, Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, eventually named their daughter Maude Apatow after the female lead.
Nevertheless Harold and Maude proved a mixed blessing for Cort, who fell out with its studio Paramount because he went to war with them - threatening not to promote the picture - in a successful bid to get them to restore creative control to Ashby.
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The fact that Cort was associated with such an eccentric role also led to his typecasting as kooky side characters rather than leading men.
He was offered the supporting part of stuttering mental patient Billy Bibbit in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and said no because he wanted the lead role of McMurphy.
Cort relented when Jack Nicholson was cast as McMurphy, but the part of Bibbit had by then been given to Brad Dourif, who won an Oscar for the film.
(from left) Waris Ahluwalia, Michael Gambon, Anjelica Huston, Noah Taylor, Cort, Bill Murray, Matthew Gray Gubler, Seau Jorge, Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe are pictured in the 2004 movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
In 1979, Cort was forced out of the limelight for years by a life-threatening car crash he suffered on the Hollywood Freeway when he turned into a lane that turned out to be obstructed by a vehicle somebody had deserted.
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Several of his bones were broken, his skull was fractured, some of his teeth were gone and his face was disfigured, necessitating a string of surgeries to correct the damage and a protracted period of painful recovery.
However he made his way back into Hollywood in the 1980s, guesting on television programs like Bates Motel and The Twilight Zone.
By the 1990s was acting in such movies as the lesbian comedy But I'm a Cheerleader, and even had an uncredited role as a restaurant manager in the 1995 Los Angeles crime movie Heat, starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Tom Sizemore and Jon Voight.
In 1991 he directed and co-wrote a black comedy called Ted & Venus, starring himself as a superannuated Venice Beach hippie in unrequited love.
The movie featured James Brolin, Carol Kane, Martin Mull, Rhea Perlman and Woody Harrelson, with Andrea Martin holding a small part as an unnamed 'bag lady.'
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Cort also forged a career as a voice actor on shows like Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series and The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries.
In 1979, Cort suffered a near-fatal car crash that mangled his face and broke several of his bones, requiring extensive plastic surgery; pictured circa 1980
As the 21st century dawned, he continued acting on such beloved TV series as Arrested Development and Ugly Betty, as well as the cult comedy Coyote Ugly and the critically acclaimed artist biopic Pollock.
In 2004 he was part of the ensemble cast of Wes Anderson's comedy The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, along with Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe and Michael Gambon.
His last feature film was the animated picture The Little Prince, featuring him amid a voice cast that included Jeff Bridges, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, James Franco, Ricky Gervais and Paul Giamatti.
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Cox, whose survivors include a brother and three sisters, will reportedly be given a memorial service in Los Angeles in future.