Elliott Gould (born Elliott Goldstein on 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 in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His mother, Lucille 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 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 it's sequels: Ocean's Twelve (2004), and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).
In June of 2007 Gould was humiliated on a first class flight from Los Angeles to New York by rotund Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange. On Stern's June 11, 2007 Sirius broadcast, Lange described his loud trashing of Gould on a cell phone call to a friend from New Jersey while waiting for the plane to take off. When Lange turned around after his call was complete, he saw that Gould was sitting directly behind him. Gould sported a blank expression that conveyed complete ignorance or that of barely contained anger. This embarrassing episode is documented on the Howard Stern Archive at howardstern.com for June 11, 2007.
Gould has said that he has a "very deep Jewish identity". He has married three times:
