- Ruth Gordon as Dame Marjorie "Maude" Chardin, a 79-year-old free spirit. Maude believes in living each day to the fullest, and "trying something new every day". Her view of life is so joyful that, true to the film's motif, it crosses a blurred, shifting line into a carefree attitude toward death as well. We know little of her past, but learn that as a young woman she was a radical suffragette who fought off police constables with her umbrella, was once married, lived in pre-war Vienna, and has a Nazi concentration camp tattoo on her arm.
- Bud Cort as Harold Parker Chasen, a young man who is obsessed with death. He drives a hearse, attends funerals of strangers and stages elaborate fake suicides. Through meeting and falling in love with Maude, he discovers joy in living for the first time.
- Vivian Pickles as Mrs. Chasen, Harold's opulently wealthy mother, is controlling, snooty and seemingly incapable of affection. Hoping to force him into respectability, Mrs. Chasen replaces Harold's beloved hearse with a Jaguar (which he then converts to a miniature hearse), and sets up several blind dates (more accurately, "bride interviews") for her son.
- Cyril Cusack as Glaucus, the sculptor who makes an ice statue of Maude and lends them his tools to transport a tree.
- Charles Tyner as General Victor Ball, Harold's uncle who lost an arm in the war and now pulls a hidden cord to make his wire prosthetic "salute". At Mrs. Chasen's request, he attempts to prepare Harold to join the armed forces. The effort is thwarted by a planned stunt in which Harold appears to "kill" Maude.
- Eric Christmas as the Priest.
- G. Wood as Harold's psychiatrist.
- Ellen Geer as Sunshine Doré, Harold's third blind date, performs an impromptu rendition of Juliet's death scene after his mock suicide.
- Judy Engles as Candy Gulf, Harold's first blind date, alarmed when he apparently sets himself on fire.
- Shari Summers as Edith Phern, Harold's second blind date, astonished when he apparently cuts off his own hand.
- Tom Skerritt (credited as "M. Borman") as the Motorcycle Officer who twice stops Maude and Harold, ultimately losing his ride to the pair.[5]
Director Hal Ashby appears in an uncredited cameo, seen at a penny arcade watching a model train at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
