Elliott Gould turns 79 today, providing as good a reason as any to revisit some of my favorite screen roles of his.
Gould has had an interesting career. A frequent collaborator with director Robert Altman, Gould was often cast as the comedic, slightly schlubby everyman. As the years changed so did the prestige of his roles. While he’s consistently worked, it’s hard to match the avant garde heights of his 1970s, particularly those Altman films.
Here, then, in no particular order are four of my favorite Gould performances:
M*A*S*H*
I’d been watching reruns of “M*A*S*H*,” the TV show, for almost a decade before I ever saw Altman’s original movie, which cast Gould in the role of Trapper John McIntyre. So I was unprepared for his much darker, more reserved take on the character, which contrasted with Wayne Rogers on the show. But it’s a deeper character, one who’s more obviously using gallows humor and the occasional moment of relief to survive the horrors he’s faced with daily. Gould glides through the role, though, not missing a beat of the dialogue or the interactions that go along with it. His is a tragic, funny Trapper John powered by an effortless-seeming performance.
The Long Goodbye
Another of his four films with Altman, this time Gould was cast as Phillip Marlowe, the same character played by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. Gould plays Marlowe as a world-weary Los Angeles detective who gets mixed up in a mystery he has no knowledge of. His slouched shoulders and fast talk keeps the story moving along at a pace that’s both lackadaisical, taking its time to get nowhere in particular and speedy, everyone getting there as fast as they can.
“Friends”
I always felt Gould was a bit too broad in his recurring role as Jack Geller, father of Monica and Ross, especially compared to his earlier, much more restrained work. But it kept him in front of the camera and hopefully helped younger audiences discover him and then explore his earlier roles, so it has to make the list.
Ocean’s Eleven etc
Reuben seems like a cast-off character in this and the following sequels, but it was his expertise and savvy were essential to the story and the dynamic of the group. Here Gould was back to his effortless, breezy performance style, which was in keeping with the story and style. He, along with Carl Reiner, brought a sense of old Hollywood to the production and went toe-to-toe with all the young bucks vying for dominance, commanding the screen away from Clooney, Pitt and the others by virtue simply of knowing how to play to the camera without breaking a sweat.
Cinematic Slant 
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