Veteran star Elliot Gould has no intention of slowing down despite being aged 88 – saying “I love to work. I live to work.”
Few actors can match the extraordinary breadth of a career spanning seven decades. From Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H to Friends and the Ocean’s films, he has worked with a Who’s Who of entertainment.
Gould has been married to Barbra Streisand, shared the screen with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, befriended Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger, and met everyone from Elvis Presley to Dolly Parton.
Yet what emerges when you speak to him is not celebrity but humanity. Living in Los Angeles, he has lent his voice to Legend of Destruction, a uniquely dark, must-see cinematic experience built from more than 1,500 artworks to tell the story of the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in AD 70.
The animated movie took eight years to make and is voiced by a galaxy of Hollywood stars including Billy Zane, Evangeline Lilly and Oscar Isaac. It follows a young man drawn into a violent ideological struggle as revolt against Rome ends in the destruction of Jerusalem and its Second Temple.
The film, made by director Gidi Dar, unfolds as a sequence of still images created from the paintings of Oscar-nominated artist David Polonsky and Michael Faust. Described as a “painted movie”, its visual inspirations range from Hieronymus Bosch to Edvard Munch, with the grotesque imagery of Francis Bacon also among its influences.
It will be available to watch on UK streaming platforms from Tuesday and the subject could hardly be more pertinent to Gould.
“I’ve been a Jew all my life,” he says. “I believe in peace and harmony. All of us should work together for peace and harmony, and learn from one another. The more I’m living, the more I feel responsibility to our species, not just my family but all of us to live and learn and to share, and that’s fundamentally my story.”
Born Elliot Goldstein in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in 1938, he began acting professionally on Broadway in the late 1950s. His breakthrough came with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969, earning him an Academy Award nomination.
A year later came M*A*S*H , the Robert Altman classic in which he played Captain Trapper John McIntyre opposite Donald Sutherland.
“It was a great privilege and a great decision to work with Robert Altman. And then I met Donald Sutherland. I love Donald. Donald, my mate.”
Sutherland died in 2024, but Elliot still speaks of him as being present. “My daughter Molly said to me, ‘You’re not dead till no one remembers you or no one talks about you.’ And that’s how I think of Donald. Still here.”
The same philosophy colours his memories of the late Dolly Parton: “I met her and when I saw how much news there was on the American broadcasters, that reminded me how great she is. I keep that in the present. She’s a great American. They should put a stamp out with her on it.”
He remembers meeting her while working for Burt Reynolds in theatre, saying: “She’s just an amazing role model. Just great. Her philanthropy, it’s amazing what she did for children and literacy. She’s not gone spiritually. I believe the spirit doesn’t die. She’ll always be with us as long as there’s country music.”
His first wife was superstar Streisand, whom he married in 1963. Their son Jason Gould inherited his mother’s musical ability and has built his own career as a singer.
Gould recalls music legend Elvis Presley struggling to understand why he and Streisand split. “I met Elvis Presley and he said to me, ‘You’re crazy.’ And I said to Elvis, ‘I ain’t crazy, Elvis. I’m scared’.”
Then Elvis asked: “Why did you and Barbra break up? You’re two of my favourite people.” His response? “Shut up, Elvis.”
Gould has since married Jennifer Bogart, twice, and remains married to her despite the couple generally living apart.
He says: “I married Jenny for the first time, then she divorced me and then she asked me to marry her again, so I did and we’ve been married ever since. We just don’t live together.”
His distinguished career has taken him from The Long Goodbye, comedy California Split directed again by Altman in 1974, and Bugsy and the Ocean’s films, before his television work brought him to a completely different generation.
As Jack Geller, father of Ross and Monica, he became a familiar face to millions of Friends viewers. The sitcom ran from 1994 to 2004.
“Oh my God, Friends,” he laughs. “I go outside of the country. I was in Ireland and some young people got excited to see Mr Geller.”
Then Taylor Swift approached him at a Saturday Night Live anniversary event. “Taylor Swift walked up to me and said, ‘I know you.’ She said, ‘I’m a Friends freak and you’re Mr Geller.’ I was very flattered”.
Gould reflects on a lifetime of enormous political, cultural, technological and musical change. Yet he remains hopeful.
“I always hang onto hope,” he says. “Spirit gives me hope. The pursuit of happiness gives me hope. And my family give me hope. Love certainly gives me more than hope. It gives me inspiration.”
*Legend of Destruction releases worldwide across all major streaming platforms on Tuesday, September 15.
