Elliott Gould

Although this veteran actor is currently most known for his relatively recent roles as Jack Geller (Ross and Monica’s father in the hit series Friends), as well as Reuben Tishkoff in the hit crime caper Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve, Elliott Gould has led a long and extensive career in the field of acting. He has worked in an impressive number of both television series and films since the early 1960s.  In fact, one of his most notable roles stems back to 1970, in Robert Altman’s MASH, in which Gould played Trapper John. 

Gould was born on August 29, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently single, although he has a total of three children and has also been married three times. He was first married from 1963 to 1971 to famed actress and singer Barbara Streisand, with whom he had a son, actor Jason Gould. He was also married twice to Jennifer Bogart; the first time from 1973 to 1976, and the second from 1978 to 1979. He has two children from his marriage with Bogart. 

When he was in his 20s, Gould landed his film debut in 1964 as the mute in The Confession, which starred Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Barbara Eden, Walter Abel, and Pippa Scott. After his breakthrough role in 1970’s MASH, which also starred Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, and Roger Bowen, Gould snagged a notable role in another Altman film three years later in The Long Goodbye, in which he starred as detective Philip Marlowe, the famous Raymond Chandler character, also played by Humphrey Bogart in 1946’s The Big Sleep. Gould also worked with Disney in 1981 for the two installments of The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark

and in The Devil and Max Devlin, in which he starred opposite TV funnyman veteran Bill Cosby.

Gould is also known for starring on Broadway and for hosting Saturday Night Live several times. In the 1991 Gould made a momentary come back with his role in the mobster flick Bugsy , co-starring Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, and Ben Kingsley. 

In 1994, he also landed the recurring role as the father of Ross and Monica Geller (played by David Schwimmer and Courteney Cox Arquette), alongside Christina Pickles as mom Judy Geller.

Then in 2001, Gould returned with his over-the-top role as Reuben Tishkoff in the super slick crime caper flick Ocean’s Eleven, alongside a stellar ensemble consisting George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Bernie Mac, and Don Cheadle.  He reprised the role in the film’s sequel Ocean’s Twelve, which included the addition of Catherine Zeta Jones, and will play Tishkoff again in Ocean’s Thirteen due out later this year.

YUDDY