ELLIOTT GOULD Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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ELLIOTT GOULD

Name: Elliott Goldstein                                                               
Born: 29 August 1938 Brooklyn, New York, United States                               
                                                                                     
Elliott Gould (born August 29, 1938) is an Academy Award-nominated American           
actor. He became known during the 1970s, having starred in many Hollywood films,     
and has since continued appearing in supporting roles.                               
                                                                                     
Gould was born Elliott Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish             
immigrants from Eastern Europe. His mother, Lucille (née Raver), sold               
artificial flowers to beauty shops, and his father, Bernard Goldstein, worked in     
the garment business. He graduated from the Professional Children's School.           
                                                                                     
Gould was one of the most prominent American film actors in the early-1970s,         
best known for playing Trapper John in Robert Altman's satirical 1970 film MASH.     
Time magazine placed him on one of its covers in 1970, when he was at the brief       
height of his long career, calling him a "star for an uptight age". Other             
notable film roles include Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (which earned him an Oscar       
nomination), A Bridge Too Far, Capricorn One, and a remake of The Lady Vanishes.     
Gould joined such distinguished company as Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum         
when he played the detective Philip Marlowe in Altman's 1973 film The Long           
Goodbye. He hosted Saturday Night Live six times, his final time being the first     
episode of the disastrous Jean Doumanian season (season 6) in November of 1980,       
where he was shocked to find that the original cast and producer had left and a       
new cast and producer had taken their place. He has never hosted after that, but     
has appeared in a season 16 (1990-1991) episode hosted by Tom Hanks where Hanks       
is welcomed into the Five-Timers club, a society for celebrities who have hosted     
SNL five times or more. Also in 1980, Gould filmed two movies for Disney studios,     
The Last Flight of Noah's Ark and The Devil and Max Devlin, in which he co-starred   
with Bill Cosby.                                                                     
                                                                                     
Gould's Broadway theatre credits include Irma La Douce, Say, Darling, I Can Get       
It for You Wholesale (in which he met Barbra Streisand), Drat! The Cat!, and         
Little Murders.                                                                       
                                                                                     
His career slowed down after a series of critical and commercial flops in the         
mid-to-late 1970s, but he has remained steadily employed in supporting and           
character roles in television and movies. He starred in a sitcom called E/R in       
1984-1985, and had a recurring guest role on Friends as Jack Geller, the father       
of Monica and Ross Geller.                                                           
                                                                                     
Gould received critical praise for his role as an aging mobster in Warren Beatty's   
1991 film Bugsy. In addition, he appeared in American History X as the boyfriend     
of Edward Norton's character's mother. He also co-starred in the popular "caper"     
film Ocean's Eleven (2001), and its sequels: Ocean's Twelve (2004), and Ocean's       
Thirteen (2007).                                                                     
                                                                                     
Gould is most recently seen on advertisements for Save Ellis Island and is heard     
on radio commercials, most notably introducing himself by name on spots for the       
Gordon Flesch Company, a Madison, Wisconsin-based office products supplier.