Leslie "Les" Gold (born June 20, 1950) is an American pawnbroker, reality TV star, author, and media personality. He is known for his role on cable and satellite television truTV's reality series, Hardcore Pawn.
Leslie "Les" Gold, is a third generation pawnbroker/salesman, the grandson of a Jewish pawnbroker who once owned company "Sam's Loans", a now-defunct pawnshop on Michigan Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Sam's Loans was where Gold made his first sale, at age 7. (The Sam's Loans building is in the process of being remodeled into a pawn shop-themed restaurant, to be called "Gold Cash Gold".) He has been married to Lilli Gold since 1975.
Gold began his first business at age 12, buying pizzas and reselling them by the slice to fellow students at Hebrew School. Gold opened his own pawn shop, American Jewelry and Loan, in 1978, at the Green Eight Shopping Center on 8 Mile Road in Oak Park. In 1993 he moved it to its present location on Greenfield Road in Detroit near 8 Mile - a 50,000 square foot building that was formerly a bowling alley. The business now has 3 locations, employs up to 200 people and serves about 1,000 customers a day.