Founding member and first grand worthy president of the Seattle Fraternal Order of Eagles.
As a Broadway producer he introduced to the public Joe E. Brown, Hal Skelly and Louis Groody.
Owned the John Cort Theater on Broadway.
In 1888 he organized the first vaudeville circuit in America.
As a young man he moved to Seattle and formed a company that at its height would own 117 theaters ranging from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Pacific Coast.
Appeared in vaudeville as Cort and Murphy, a comedy team.
Survived by his widow, Mrs. Ida M. Cort; two sons, Henry and John Edward Cort, and a daughter, Mrs. John Lewis of San Francisco; and a sister, Mrs. Fred W. Eagles of White River Junction, Vt.
Co-founder, with Oliver Morosco, of the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company.