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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 09/14/2010 : 11:40:42
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Rhoda's dad leaves her.
Harold Gould, Character Actor, Dies at 86By BRUCE WEBER
Published: September 13, 2010
Harold Gould, a widely recognizable character actor in film and television who specialized, especially late in his career, in playing suave, well-dressed gentlemen in popular sitcoms, died Saturday in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 86.
Enlarge This Image
CBS, via Photofest
Harold Gould, shown in �Rhoda,� with Valerie Harper, left, and Julie Kavner, appeared on TV and in films over five decades.The cause was prostate cancer, said Jaime Larkin, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Fund. Mr. Gould lived at its retirement community.
Mr. Gould was probably best known for two television roles in which he played dignified, self-possessed and understanding men trying to look out for the women in their lives. In the 1970s, on �The Mary Tyler Moore Show� and later on its spinoff, �Rhoda,� he played Martin Morgenstern, the father of Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper), the best friend of Mary Richards (Ms. Moore). It was a role for a charmer; Martin was the patient and consoling parent, a foil for his brassy wife, Ida (Nancy Walker).
A decade and a half or so later, he was a regular guest star on �The Golden Girls� as a sweetly dashing widower who courts, more or less successfully, the sweetly ditzy Rose Nylund (Betty White).
Mr. Gould, who had a Ph.D. in dramatic speech and literature from Cornell, taught acting in college before he became a professional actor. But in spite of his late start, few actors can boast a r�sum� as long.
Mr. Gould appeared in theater productions on and Off Broadway in New York and in regional theaters around the country, including �King Lear� at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 1992. He played dozens of character roles in movies, including the dapper grifter Kid Twist in �The Sting� (1973), the Oscar-winning buddy picture that starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con men; a Russian count in Woody Allen�s send-up of epic literature, �Love and Death� (1975); and a greedy corporate executive named Engulf in Mel Brooks�s 1976 slapstick comedy, �Silent Movie.�
But Mr. Gould was most of all a fixture on television with a familiar face, with or without what came to be his signature mustache. In the 1960s he appeared on �Dennis the Menace,� �The Donna Reed Show,� �Hazel,� �National Velvet,� �Perry Mason,� �Mister Ed,� �Dr. Kildare,� �The Twilight Zone,� �The Virginian,� �12 O�Clock High,� �The Fugitive,� �Judd for the Defense� and �Hogan�s Heroes,� among other shows. In 1965, he played Marlo Thomas�s father in the pilot episode of �That Girl.� (Lew Parker played the part in the series.)
In the 1970s, in addition to his stints on �Mary Tyler Moore� and �Rhoda,� he was seen on �Cannon,� �Mannix,� �Hawaii Five-O,� �Medical Story,� �Police Story,� �Family,� �Soap� and �The Love Boat.� In a 1972 episode of �Love, American Style� that was the progenitor of the hit series �Happy Days,� he played Howard Cunningham, the Middle American father of the Middle American son played by Ron Howard; in the series the father was played by Tom Bosley.
In the 1980s Mr. Gould appeared on �St. Elsewhere,� �Webster,� �Trapper John, M.D.,� �L.A. Law� and �Night Court�; in the 1990s, on �Dallas,� �Lois and Clark,� �Touched by an Angel� and �Felicity�; and in this century on �The King of Queens,� �Judging Amy� and �Cold Case.�
Harold Vernon Goldstein was born in Schenectady, N.Y., on Dec. 10, 1923. His father worked for the Post Office. Harold served in the Army during World War II, seeing action in France as a mortar gunner. On his return he graduated from New York State College for Teachers (now the State University at Albany) and enrolled in the graduate drama program at Cornell. He taught drama at Randolph-Macon Woman�s College in Lynchburg, Va., and the University of California, Riverside.
Mr. Gould is survived by his wife, the former Lea Shampanier, whom he married in 1950; a daughter, Deborah; two sons, Joshua and Lowell; and five grandchildren.
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Edited by - randall on 09/15/2010 21:54:19 |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 09/14/2010 : 14:17:44
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Goulden Girls bereft.
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Cheese_Ed 
"The Provolone Ranger"
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Posted - 09/14/2010 : 18:38:01
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randall
"I like to watch."
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 09/15/2010 : 18:25:05
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quote:
Originally posted by randall
A beautiful appreciation of Harold Gould in today's Times. In the editorial column, not an op-ed. A very rare honor, and well deserved.
Randall dear -- this is the 2nd time you've posted a link to the NYTimes which is not available unless one subscribes. Can you do a copy n paste of the article so we can all read it.
TIA!!
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 09/15/2010 : 21:51:24
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by randall
A beautiful appreciation of Harold Gould in today's Times. In the editorial column, not an op-ed. A very rare honor, and well deserved.
Randall dear -- this is the 2nd time you've posted a link to the NYTimes which is not available unless one subscribes. Can you do a copy n paste of the article so we can all read it.
TIA!!
But the 1st time anyone told me, dear!
With That Guy as ...By LAWRENCE DOWNES
Published: September 14, 2010
By scanning earth�s television broadcasts long after we are gone, other civilizations will be able to make certain judgments about human society. How among untold billions of lives, a few were deemed worthy of repeated and copious observation. Milton Berle, Mary Tyler Moore, Ted Danson, Oprah Winfrey, Simon Cowell: Truly these were giants of the species.
Harold Gould, Character Actor, Dies at 86 (September 14, 2010) But there were others whose status might inspire mystery. Like the man in this photo. Who is that guy? Note to anthropologists: He�s Harold Gould.
There are character actors. And then there is Mr. Gould, who died on Saturday in California, age 86. Mr. Gould and his mustache were one of the hardest-working, most-familiar duos in Hollywood. He had the face you could place, if not attach a name to.
Mr. Gould didn�t start acting until his late 30s, but then he didn�t stop. His talent runs like DNA through nearly 50 years of movies and TV. Some actors make mountainous careers out of a handful of parts. Not Mr. Gould, who had no blockbuster roles. Using bit parts like mosaic tiles, he built an awesome r�sum�.
He was Martin Morgenstern, Rhoda�s father in �The Mary Tyler Moore Show� and �Rhoda.� He was the crime lord Honore Vachon on �Hawaii Five-O.� He was on �The Rockford Files,� �The Love Boat,� �Gunsmoke,� �I Dream of Jeannie,� �Get Smart,� �The Golden Girls� and dozens of other shows better and worse. He was a grifter in �The Sting,� a Russian nobleman in �Love and Death.� He was Marlo Thomas�s father in the pilot of �That Girl.�
He was, in other words, that guy. And they are not making many more like him.
�They don�t write parts for character people anymore,� said Saratoga Ballantine, a producer of a new, unreleased documentary, �Troupers,� about character actors who kept working past 80.
They include Mr. Gould and her father, Carl Ballantine, who died last year. (You know him, too: Lester Gruber, �McHale�s Navy.�) �Everybody�s beautiful and Botoxed these days,� Ms. Ballantine said. �Everyone�s starting to look alike.�
Looking alike is not what Mr. Gould did. He had other dimensions: a doctorate in dramatic speech and literature, a long career teaching drama in college, a family and grandchildren. He had all the parts of a satisfying life, plus a thousand others. LAWRENCE DOWNES
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Edited by - randall on 09/15/2010 21:51:48 |
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RIP Harold Gould
