In praise of - Elliott Gould.

Here's today's depressing fact.

Robert Altman's satirical anti-war movie MASH is now 42 years old. Yeah, I know. It made me feel old too. If it's any consolation its star, Elliott Gould, is probably older. He's 70 now and looking good on it. Busy too. He's in Edinburgh for the Film Festival with a new film, Fred, and a personal appearance at the Traverse Theatre tonight, where he'll talk about a career that's taken in everything from making films with Ingmar Bergman and the Muppets, to guest roles in Friends and the Oceans movies. Since his 1970s heyday – and MASH made Gould A-list Hollywood – he has carved out a long and varied career as a character actor. The question is if he'd been born 20 years later would he ever have been allowed to be anything more?

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