The entertainment industry has just lost one of its sexiest men. Harold Gould, best known as Rhoda’s father and Rose Nylund’s boyfriend on *Golden Girls. *passed away yesterday from prostate cancer.
I have named him in many threads about our personal celebrity crushes.
Oops, can a Moderator move this to Cafe Society, where I thought I still was?
NP.
I noticed that there wasn’t a thread on this passing, but somehow forgot to open one up. Thanks.
His role in The Sting as Kid Twist is what I remember him most for. But looking at his entry on IMDB he was ubiquitous in the 70’s on TV.
A very likable actor. He always had that twinkle, like he was up to some kind of mischief.
Does anyone else remember The Feather and Father Gang? It was probably terrible…I had a kid-crush on Stephanie Powers.
He always stood out to me and I always enjoyed his work. Thanks for pointing this out - he will be missed.
Yes, I automatically think of him in The Sting too, but he was indeed a familiar face back then–a real workhorse character actor.
I always think of him as Kid Twist, but he also had a memorable moment in Woody Allen’s “Love and Death”.
He was so totally wonderful, that I give him a full pardon for appearing on Rhoda.
Best wishes,
hh
Hey, a lot of us liked Rhoda… mostly for the great character actors that up until then had been given roles much smaller than their personalities.
Gould was one of my favorite character actors. He was all over the TV in the seventies when I was growing up. Yes, I do remember Feather And Father as much as I wish I didn’t.
I’m glad he had a long, fulfilling life but he’ll be missed.
What a loss. He was among my favorites of all time. He always struck me as though his real life personality were similar to the characters he played: a bit smart-alecky, a bit happy-go-lucky, with a lot of charm, wit, and class.
Oh goodness… I loved this man. SOOOOO classy- especially in The Sting. And very sexy even in his later years. 
Sigh. Another familiar face gone.
A finger slyly sweeps across my nose in salute to Kid Twist.
I thought about starting one for him a few days ago but… didn’t. He, Glenn Shaddux and Kevin McCarthy made a great trio for departing character actor greats.
Robert Clary of Hogan’s Heroes fame (a show on which Gould guest starred more than once as a Nazi officer) used to have a talk show on one of the cable networks and most if not all of his guests were Jewish celebrities. Gould was one and he told a story that I thought was hysterical- the story itself is cute but hearing him tell it is what made it. I wish I could YouTube it but the show seems to be nowhere in existence anymore.
The story: When Gould (birth name Goldstein) was a kid and it was Christmas time he wanted to go see Santa Claus but his father wouldn’t let him because, among other reasons, they were Jewish. His parents were in fact both first generation and they still spoke some Yiddish in the home- some of his earliest acting experience was in the long defunct NY Yiddish theater.
The family had moved from NYC to a small town in upstate New York near Schenectady where his father was postmaster and his uncles worked in various public capacities so the family knew everybody. His mother was willing to take him to see Santa but his father was adamant about it and his father was a very paterfamilias type whose word was law and when he said his son couldn’t go see Santa Claus there was no appeal, and he and his mother both knew that if they did then it would somehow get back to his father and there’d be hell to pay.
One Christmas season his mother made a trip to New York City to visit relatives and took him with her and finally she decided “I’ll take you to see Santa at [one of the major department stores- can’t remember which] but ONLY if you don’t tell your father.” He agreed.
While they were in line she started getting nervous and told him two or three times “Remember… you can’t tell your father”. When they got closer she even said it in Yiddish- “Remember, you can’t tell your father… he wouldn’t like it.” She told him all the way to Santa’s lap “You can’t tell your father”.
He finally sat on Santa’s lap and his mother had him so nervous he was almost crying and wouldn’t talk to Santa. Santa did his “Ho Ho Ho” and “what do you want young man” and Harold told him “It doesn’t matter, you won’t bring it anyway.”
“Why not? Have you been a bad boy?”
“No.”
“Well, why wouldn’t I bring it?”
“Because we’re Jewish. And because my Daddy would be mad if he knew we were here and my mom would get in trouble.”
Santa kissed him and said “Oh Santa doesn’t care about that… it’s all the same to him. Santa loves all kids. Now tell me what you want!”
That cheered him up so he gave Santa his Christmas list. He had a great time. But as he was getting off of Santa’s lap Santa leaned forward and said in his ear, in perfect Yiddish and a thick NYC Jewish accent, “But remember… don’t tell your father you was here or your mother will get in trouble”.
He was also one of the most educated actors- he had a Ph.D. (not an honorary doctorate) in Theater and was a professor for many years before he started making enough from acting to quit academia. He was said to be an “everybody’s favorite professor” type.