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Harold J. Stone
Harold Stone
Veteran character actor Harold J. Stone appeared as loan shark Bernie Bustamente in a fourth season episode of Three's Company.
Personal Information
Gender: Male
Birth name: Harold Hochstein
Born: (1913-03-03)3 March 1913
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
Died 18 November 2005(2005-11-18) (aged 92)
Deathplace: Woodland Hills, Los Angeles
Career/Family Information
Occupation/
Career:
Actor and voice artist
Years active: 1939 to1988
Spouse(s): Joan Stone (?–1960; her death)
Miriam Stone (1960-2005; his death)
Character information
Appeared on: Three's Company guest appearance
Character played: Bernie Bustamente in the Season 4 episode "The Loan Shark"
Three's Company Script


Harold J. Stone (3 March 1913 – 18 November 2005) appeared as Bernie Bustamente, a mobster/loan shark who forces Jack into giving his native Italian wife Lucia (Livia Ginise) a cooking lesson in order to pay off an interest debt on a loan that Chrissy, not realizing Bustamente is a loan shark, takes out in the Three's Company episode titled "The Loan Shark" in Season 4.

Life and Career[]

Born Harold Hochstein to a Jewish acting family, he began his career on Broadway in 1939 and appeared in five plays in the next six years, including One Touch of Venus and Stalag 17, following which he made his motion picture debut in the Alan Ladd film noir classic, The Blue Dahlia (1946). He went on to work in small but memorable roles in such films as The Harder They Fall with Humphrey Bogart (1956), Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), Somebody up There Likes Me (1956), Spartacus (1960) and Girl Happy (1965).

Although Harold woukld go on to perform secondary roles in a number of films, he became a recognizable face to television viewers for his more than 150 guest appearances on numerous shows dating from the 1950s to the early 1980s including but not limited to the ABC-TV Western series Stagecoach West (the 1960 episode "Red Sand" with Dean Jones), Cimarron City, The Restless Gun, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Roaring 20s, I Spy, The Virginian, Griff, The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, Have Gun Will Travel, Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes, Mannix and Get Smart.

In the 1961-1962 season, Harold appeared three times in Stephen McNally's ABC crime drama Target: The Corruptors! In 1963, he appeared with Marsha Hunt in the ABC medical drama Breaking Point in an episode which was nominated for an Emmy Award for writing. In September 1964, he appeared in the Western series, Bonanza, in an episode titled "The Hostage". Also in 1964, Stone appeared on Daniel Boone in the episode titled "The Fluellen Family" as Greenbriar. Stone himself was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his role in The Nurses.

In the 1960s and 1970s, while continuing to work in television, most notably as a regular on 1973's short-lived Bridget Loves Bernie, Stone returned to the stage, directing several off-Broadway and Broadway productions, including Ernest in Love and Charley's Aunt.

Death[]

Harold died in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles.

External Links[]

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