Harvey D. Cort

Harvey D. Cort, age 96, died peacefully on November 13, 2022, in his Manhattan apartment after a brief illness. A Brooklyn native, born Harvey Deutscher Cohen, on February 1, 1926, he was the son of Marcus T. Cohen and Marie (Deutscher) Cohen. His mother was a concert violinist turned homemaker. His father, Marcus (Max) was a salesman. He graduated from Midwood High School. Always interested in movies, theater and acting, he became a radio actor in his teens, performing under the stage name Bob Cort on the show "Let's Pretend."

In 1944, at 17, he enlisted in the Army, serving in several Stateside positions, including working with wounded soldiers, putting on plays and athletic tournaments. In 1945, he was honorably discharged. In 1947, he graduated NYU with a BA.

After graduation, he worked in the entertainment and news industry, using the last name Cort professionally and personally. He worked for CBS News in the Public Affairs Division producing feature length news shows, including "Waste Not Want Not," a documentary involving Herbert Hoover and a documentary on Operation Plumbbob, one of a series of above-ground nuclear bomb tests in Nevada in the 1950s.

After leaving CBS, he worked as an independent producer and director on various projects, including the TV show "Junior Science," a series of 39, 15-minute segments that explained various scientific phenomena in a fun way so that children could later perform the experiments.

In the mid-1950s, he met Richard Dyer-Bennet, a classical folk singer, eventually producing 15 of his records under the label Dyer-Bennet Records, now a part of the Smithsonian Institution Folkways Recordings. In 1959, he directed "The Innocents," an Off-Broadway show at the Bramhall Playhouse (later the Gramercy Arts Theater). In 1962, he wrote and produced the "Great Chase," a motion picture compilation of various silent film era chase scenes. In 1969, he directed the motion picture, "The Vixens." By the early 1970s, finding it increasingly difficult to make a living in the entertainment industry, he changed careers going to Hunter College School of Social Work to become a clinical social worker/therapist. He worked as a therapist and an administrator at Staten Island's South Beach Psychiatric Center where he worked with people suffering from alcoholism and helping to establish the inpatient psychiatric center. He later worked at Richmond Memorial Hospital as the Director of the Mental Health Center.

In the early 1990s, after retiring from Richmond Memorial, he directed several Off-Off Broadway productions, including "Noises Off" and "Mr. Shakespeare & Mr. Porter."

He was the loving father of Hayley Cort and Daniel Cort, father-in-Law of Julia Cort, grandfather of Amanda Cort, Genevieve CortGrasso and Meredith Cort. Devoted and loving partner for 32 years of Ruth Lipman, with whom he owned a house in Columbia County. His brother, Jay Cohen and sister, Joan Posner predeceased him. His first marriage, to Diana Cort, ended in divorce.

Funeral services will be held on November 15, 2022, at 11:30 a.m., at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel.