Harold Gould

your fiend mr. jones

29Sep10

I first noticed him playing Stephanie Powers’ father in the show “Feather and Father”, a show about a con artist and the attorney daughter who tries to reform him every episode. “Switch” did it better, but I liked Gould as he brought an enthusiasm to his part that Robert Wagner couldn’t muster through his “cool”. And indeed, Gould probably got the part through playing “Kid Twist” in “The Sting” (a movie that inspired TV executives to say “How about con artist shows?”). What I like about Gould is what I referred to as an enthusiasm before, but really it is the joy of being paid to say the words of others (other characters? other writers?) aloud. Watch him in anything (and he has been in almost everything from the early sixties on), and see an actor who, no matter what he plays, shows the former teacher of speech and drama that he was. As I get older, I tend to appreciate people who have a love of what they do and in Harold Gould you get someone who goes from father (he was “Rhoda”’s) to G-man (an FBI foil for a shabby, brilliant homicide officer in “Ransom For A Dead Man” the second TV movie pilot for the “Columbo” series) to con artist and all of them are excellent enunciators. Also, he is often seen with a moustache, just a touch of difference to make us wonder “Hey, isn’t he the same guy who was ____ in ____?”