[2] At the end of the war the family moved back to Southern California and settled in Long Beach where Budd attended David Starr Jordan High School[5] and hung out with the late Bob Denver.
[2] In 1955 Budd returned to LA, parked cars in Beverly Hills, pumped gas in Pacific Palisades and joined Richard Boone's acting class on a tip from actor Billy Gray.
[8][9] Budd, along with actor and recording artist Steve Rowland and sax player Chuck Rio formed the Hollywood band "The Exciters."
[2][10] On at least one occasion, their band created near havoc while playing at the Encore Club when the police and fire department were called out to arrest couples twisting in the street.
For the next few years, Budd played bit parts in various television series, including a bad guy in McCloud, a gang leader in The Outcasts, and an officer in The Reluctant Astronaut.
[2] In 1966, he appeared in two episodes during the first season of Star Trek as an actor and was killed off in both shows: as Security Guard Rayburn in What Are Little Girls Made Of?, which was directed by James Goldstone and written by Robert Bloch and Gene Roddenberry and as Barnhart the navigator in The Man Trap, which was directed by Marc Daniels and written by George Clayton Johnson and Gene Roddenberry.
Budd spent a year living with the late Peter Breck, who starred in The Big Valley and his wife Diane in the San Fernando Valley and would get together on weekends with friends Robert Fuller, James Stacy, Chuck Courtney, actor/stuntmen Jerry Summers and Ronnie Rondell riding dirt bikes and partying at Bob Fuller's house.
He worked in What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, Beau Geste, First to Fight, Tobruk, Ice Station Zebra and There Was a Crooked Man and was part of the original Rat Patrol Stunt Team.
[13] It was a pioneering wheel series of 90 minute episodes rotating around three main characters played by Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack.
[13] Budd has worked with Hall of Fame stuntmen Hal Needham, Ronnie Rondell, Glenn Wilder, Roger Creed and Bill Hickman who is remembered most for the landmark car chase alongside Steve McQueen in the 1968 film Bullitt.
In 1994, he formed Strike Team Media, a TV-promotional advertising firm and is currently working on getting his screenplays Closest of Enemies, Sea Foam Green and a TV series idea HLS Coconut Grove into production.