Harold Gould

Harold Gould, the American character actor who played Martin Morgenstern on Rhoda and Miles Webber on The Golden Girls, died of prostate cancer on September 11, 2010, in Woodland Hills, California. He was eighty-six. He and his wife, Lea, had been married sixty years. Born Harold Vernon Goldstein in Schenectady, New York, on December 10, 1923, he served in the Army in World War II, earned degrees including a Cornell Ph.D. in theatre, and taught before choosing the riskier life of a working actor. Hollywood and television slowly filled with his face: Kid Twist in The Sting, a fake Howard Cunningham in the Happy Days pilot he declined to continue, and a long run of elegant, often Jewish grandfathers and suitors who made courtesy look like strength. Five Emmy nominations never quite summarized a résumé of hundreds of television appearances and steady stage work, including an Obie. Colleagues remembered professionalism without frost; audiences remembered a man who could button a suit and still seem surprised by affection. He died in Woodland Hills on September 11, 2010, the same date as Kevin McCarthy — two craftsmen of American screens sharing a quiet anniversary. He died in Woodland Hills, California, on September 11, 2010. The guest roles add up to a career; the steadiness was the point. Gould specialized in men who entered a room already halfway through a thought. Whether Morgenstern fretting over Rhoda or Miles courting Rose, he played affection as something with manners. The academic years never fully left him; you can hear the teacher in the timing. Character acting of his kind rarely trends, which is why memorials matter — they keep the mid-list greats visible beside the headliners. Woodland Hills is a long way from Schenectady; the through-line is work done carefully for fifty years.