A file photo of Bud Cort as Harold in the 1971 film Harold and Maude. 

LOS ANGELES - Bud Cort, whose performance as a troubled young man who finds unexpected love with a 79-year-old free spirit in "Harold and Maude" helped turn the 1971 film into an enduring cult classic, died Wednesday morning in Norwalk, Connecticut, after a long illness. He was 77.

His death was confirmed by Cort's longtime friend Dorian Hannaway, who first met the actor in 1978.

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Born Walter Edward Cox on March 29, 1948, in Rye, New York, Cort adopted his professional name early in his career, having fallen in love with the theater. After earning small roles on a few TV series, he was discovered by director Robert Altman while performing in a nightclub comedy act and cast as Pvt. Boone in the director's hit 1970 anti-war satire "M.A.S.H." That same year, Altman also gave him the title role in his "Brewster McCloud," an eccentric fable about a Houston loner determined to build a pair of wings and take flight.

Cort's........

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