Harold Gould, 86, a well-known character actor who played Kid Twist in ‘The Sting’ in 1973, Valerie Harper’s father on the TV sitcom, ‘Rhoda,’ and Betty White’s boyfriend on ‘The Golden Girls,’ died September 11 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement community in Woodland Hills. The cause was cancer. Gould, a former longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, launched his acting career in the 1960s and had roles in many popular films, including ‘Harper’ and ‘Patch Adams.’ For television, he played Martin Morgenstern on ‘Rhoda’ and Miles Webber on ‘Golden Girls.’ He also made scores of guest appearances on top-rated series, including ‘Route 66,’ ‘Perry Mason’ and ‘Spencer.’ Yet theater was Gould’s first love. He appeared in Broadway productions of Neil Simon’s ‘Fools’ and Jules Feiffer’s ‘Grown Ups’ among others. Off-Broadway he won an Obie award in 1970 for his performance as Dr. Eduard Huml in a production of ‘The Increased Difficulty of Concentration,’ by Vaclav Havel. ‘Everybody seemed to like Hal and he got along with everybody,’ said Gould’s wife, Lea, this week. ‘He saw himself as a team player, not a star.’ Born Harold V. Goldstein on December 10, 1923 in Schenectady, New York, Gould served in the Army during World War II before completing his education. After earning a doctorate in theater from Cornell University, he taught for 12 years before taking a one-year leave of absence from UC Riverside in 1960 to follow his passion for acting. ‘I was only 60 miles from Los Angeles, so I left my wife in Riverside, where she taught school,’ he told the Palm Beach Post in 2007. ‘I gave myself a year. All of my colleagues would say, ‘What are you doing? You’re crazy to leave teaching.’ But I had to try. I had to take the leap.’ Gould and his family lived in the Palisades for about 30 years and were members of Kehillat Israel synagogue, where Gould often did readings as part of the religious services. His three children attended local schools, including Palisades Elementary, Marquez Elementary, Revere Junior High School and Palisades High School. His wife directed and acted in productions by Theatre Palisades. In addition, Gould once rode as grand marshal of the town’s Fourth of July parade, and he helped the Palisadian-Post at one point by posing for an ad to promote subscriptions. The Goulds moved to Santa Monica in the early 1990s and then recently relocated to Woodland Hills. Gould is survived by his wife of 60 years, Lea; his children, Deborah Gould Harris of Glendora, Joshua Gould of Glendale and Lowell Gould of North Carolina; and five grandchildren.
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