| Harold Gould  AKA Harold V. Goldstein
Born: 10-Dec-1923
Birthplace: Schenectady, NY
Died: 11-Sep-2010
Location of death: Woodland Hills, CA
Cause of death: Cancer - Prostate
Remains: Cremated
Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Martin Morganstern on Rhoda Military service: US Army (WWII, action in France) Born Harold Goldstein, he worked as a professional actor while still in high school, playing several roles in each episode of a local radio station's The FBI In Action. But his high school guidance counselor advised him that very few actors earn a decent living, and suggested he teach instead. He went to college with a career in education in mind, but left to join the Army during World War II. Assigned to a mortar platoon, he saw combat in eastern France. After the war, he earned his PhD in Theatre, and taught drama for many years, spending his summers as a part-time actor. He made his professional stage debut playing Thomas Jefferson in a Virginia production of The Common Glory in 1955, and he won an Obie in 1969 for his first New York stage appearance, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration.
Eleven years after winning the Obie, at the age of 37, Gould finally decided that taking career advice from his high school guidance counselor might have been a mistake. He drove to Hollywood and, in one of his first roles since leaving the academic life, he played a bum in an episode of Dennis the Menace. He made ends meet by working as a security guard and teaching drama classes at UCLA, but soon, with his memorable face and an undeniable on-camera gravitas learned from years of lecturing, he was typecast playing authority figures -- policemen, prosecutors, high-powered surgeons, military men, and judges. He was a cop in Harper, and a lawyer in Norman Mailer's An American Dream.
Gould was best known as Rhoda's father on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, and as Betty White's boyfriend on The Golden Girls. He also had two television "near miss" experiences, playing the main character's father in the pilot episodes for That Girl and Happy Days; in the subsequent series he was replaced by, respectively, Lew Parker and Tom Bosley. His best films include The Sting, the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau version of The Front Page, Woody Allen's Love and Death, and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie.
Gould continued to work on stage and, occasionally, on film and television until well into his 80s, and died in 2010.
Father: Louis Goldstein (mailman)
Mother: Lillian Goldstein (homemaker)
Wife: Lea Shampanier Gould ("Lea Vernon", actress, m. 1950 until his death)
Daughter: Deborah Gould Harris
Son: Joshua Gould
Son: Lowell Gould
High School: Roessleville High School, Colonie, NY
University: Albany State Teachers College (dropped out to join US Army)
University: MA Theatre, Cornell University (1948)
University: PhD Dramatic Speech and Literature, Cornell University (1953)
Professor: Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Professor: University of California at Riverside
Professor: Speech and Drama, Cornell University
TELEVISION
The Golden Girls Nicholas Carbone (1985-92)
Spencer Ben Sprague (1985)
Park Place David Ross (1981)
Soap Barney Gerber (1977)
The Feather and Father Gang Harry Danton (1976-77)
Rhoda Martin Morgenstern (1974-78)
Hawaii Five-O Honore Vashon (1972-75)
The Long, Hot Summer Bowman Chamberlain (1965-66)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Brother Bear (20-Oct-2003) · Old Denahi [VOICE]
Freaky Friday (6-Aug-2003) · Grandpa
The Master of Disguise (2-Aug-2002) · Grandfather
Stuart Little (5-Dec-1999) · Grandpa Spencer
Patch Adams (21-Oct-1998) · Arthur Mendelson
My Giant (10-Apr-1998)
Brown's Requiem (1998) · Solly K
The Love Bug (30-Nov-1997)
Killer: A Journal of Murder (6-Sep-1996)
Lover's Knot (12-Jul-1996)
Romero (25-Aug-1989)
Get Smart, Again! (26-Feb-1989) · Nicholas Dimente
Playing for Keeps (3-Oct-1986) · Rockerfeller
Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (30-Mar-1986)
The Fourth Wise Man (30-Mar-1985)
Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (28-Nov-1983)
The Dream Chasers (1982) · Telford Stampley
Seems Like Old Times (19-Dec-1980)
Moviola: The Silent Lovers (20-May-1980)
The Scarlett O'Hara War (19-May-1980)
Kenny Rogers as The Gambler (8-Apr-1980)
The Man in the Santa Claus Suit (23-Dec-1979)
The One and Only (3-Feb-1978)
The Big Bus (22-Oct-1976)
Gus (7-Jul-1976)
Silent Movie (16-Jun-1976)
Love and Death (10-Jun-1975) · Anton
The Strongest Man in the World (6-Feb-1975)
The Front Page (17-Dec-1974) · The Mayor
The Sting (25-Dec-1973) · Kid Twist
Where Does It Hurt? (4-Jul-1972)
Mrs. Pollifax-Spy (12-May-1971) · Nexdhet
The Lawyer (10-Mar-1970)
The Arrangement (18-Nov-1969) · Dr. Leibman
Project X (May-1968)
An American Dream (31-Aug-1966) · Ganucci's Lawyer
Harper (23-Feb-1966) · Sheriff
Inside Daisy Clover (17-Feb-1966) · Cop
The Yellow Canary (15-May-1963)
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