Remembering Veteran Film and TV Actor Harold Gould (1923 – 2010)

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By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel Hollywood overall today just doesn’t have the depth it once had in character actors. With that said, I wanted to write about one such actor I felt was the total package when it came to character acting. He was not a leading man and may have not always been a household name, but to true movie fans and I think I am in that group, Harold Gould was an “actor’s actor” as my dad used to say, who also dabbled in acting in the 50’s and 60’s.

Gould can be seen in movies and TV for nearly 50 years starting in the early 60’s until 2010 in shows like The Twilight Zone, The Golden Girls, Rhoda, Cannon and Mannix to name just a few of the many TV shows he appeared on.

In 1960, after teaching at a few colleges, he decided to act professionally. At first, he had a tough time finding acting gigs, but in 1962, he landed his first film “Two For The Seesaw” starring Robert Mitchum which he was uncredited in. Later that year, he would finally get a credited small role in “The Couch” starring Grant Williams.

From there, his name got around with many parts coming in movie roles and TV work. Several years later, Gould would co-star opposite Paul Newman and Robert Redford as a conman, known as “Kid Twist”, in the 1973 blockbuster and multiple Oscar winning nominated film, “The Sting”. This for me, was Gould’s greatest role.

Gould would go on acting for another 37 years when sadly, we lost this wonderful actor on September 11, 2010, to Prostate Cancer, at the age of 86.

I am sure like me, you have your favorite memories of a roles Gould played. Feel free to share them and if you want to email them to me, use the form box below. If I get enough of them, I will compile them for a follow on article with your comments and name credited with them.

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