An endearing film, television and stage actor, John Goodman skyrocketed to leading man status on the strength of his meat-and-potatoes, regular-guy affability and easygoing charm. For eight years, he was a crucial part of the top-rated series "Roseanne" (ABC, 1988-97), playing Roseannes forthright husband and comic foil. And while he enjoyed mainstream success with Roseanne and box office hits The Flintstones (1994) and Monsters, Inc. (2001), he maintained an art house fan base as a perennial favorite in Coen Brothers movies like Raising Arizona (1987) and The Big Lebowski (1997). Huggably vulnerable but with an underlying strength and potential for rage, Goodman was an unlikely leading man possessing broad appeal, enormous range, and the respect of audiences, peers and critics alike.
Goodman was born on June 20, 1952, in Affton, MO a small, unincorporated area of St. Louis County. His father, a postal worker, died of a heart attack when he was only two years old, leaving his barbeque joint waitress mother to raise three children on her own. Goodman was a dedicated football player as well as a smart aleck devotee of Mad Magazine and following high school graduation in 1970 he earned a football scholarship to Southwest Missouri State University. An injury squashed any hopes of a professional sports career, forcing the funny, outgoing charmer to switch his major to drama. In 1975, Goodman graduated with a theater degree, then moved to New York with a suitcase in hand and some money lent by his brother, Leslie. He had never been to the Big Apple as a small town Midwesterner, he immediately felt out of place. Undeterred, however, Goodman hit the audition circuit running and in a month landed work with a touring dinner theater production of 1776.
Over the next few years his average-working-guy looks paid the bills in a series of commercials, including a rather infamous one where he slapped his face with skin bracer and commented Thanks, I needed that! He moved up the ranks of the New York theater community with his 1978 performance in a disco version of A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Equity Library. The following year he scored a slot on Broadway in Loose Ends and fell in with a crew of struggling actors (Bruce Willis, Kevin Kline, and Dennis Quaid among others) known for frequenting Caf
Copyright © Baseline 2009.