Bud Cort

Harold stages his deaths with the concentration of someone determined to get the details right. In Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude (1971), Cort makes these displays seem practised, giving the boy control over a spectacle when ordinary living defeats him. He leaves enough hurt visible to stop Harold becoming merely a nuisance. The care he takes over playing dead suggests how much he needs something he can do well.

Robert Altman cast Cort in a supporting role in M\A\S\H (1970) and as the title character in Brewster McCloud (1970). Playing Harold brought wider recognition and left Cort typecast as an eccentric misfit. Later work included supporting and voice roles, with Bill Ubell in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou* (2004) among the film parts. That history can encourage a narrow account of what he does: turn up, look unusual, supply the odd behaviour. His work as Harold deserves closer attention than that.

Ashby’s film gives him Ruth Gordon’s Maude, whose enjoyment of Harold’s company matters more than any determination to improve him. Cort responds without trying to match her exuberance, letting their scenes develop through attention and reserve. We were moved by the growing ease between them, because he allows Harold to accept affection without abruptly becoming a different person. That gradual change makes the romance credible despite a premise that gives both actors plenty of opportunities to overdo it.

There are limits to what his precision can do, and Harold and Maude sometimes tests them. The repeated staged suicides can dull the comedy, while the script grows too pleased with its disregard for convention. Cort keeps the boy’s hurt in view, but we would not pretend that each repetition tells us more about him. We recommend the film with that caveat, and for a performance whose small adjustments repay attention. Watch his responses to Gordon as closely as his performances of death.