John Goodman

**John Stephen Goodman** is an American actor best known for playing Dan Conner on the iconic TV series "Roseanne" and for his collaboration with the Coen brothers on such films as "Raising Arizona," "Barton Fink," "The Big Lebowski" "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Inside Llewyn Davis."

Goodman was born on June 20, 1952 in Affton, Missouri. His father, Leslie Francis Goodman, was a postal worker, and his mother, Virginia, was a waitress at Jack and Phil's Bar-B-Que. He was two years old when his father passed on, and his mother ended up taking in laundry to support the family. He also has a sister named Elisabeth and a brother named Leslie.

Goodman attended Affton High School, where he played football and dabbled in theater, later earning a football scholarship to Southwest Missouri State University, now known as Missouri State University. He stud drama with future actresses Kathleen Turner and Tess Harper with whom he remains close and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1975.

Goodman started pursuing acting seriously after an injury ended his college football career and left Missouri for New York City in 1975. With a small bankroll from his brother, Goodman found an apartment near the Theater District and unsuccessfully tried to make money as a bartender and waiter. He started out doing voice-overs and commercials, appearing in an iconic television ad for Skin Bracer by Mennen. He also performed off-Broadway and in dinner theatres before landing character roles in film during the early 1980s.

In 1985, Goodman starred in the musical "Big River," for which he received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He had a long history of appearances on late night comedy shows and was the first guest on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." He auditioned for "Saturday Night Live" in 1980, getting rejected with such up-coming comedians as Jim Carrey, Paul Reubens, and Robert Townsend.

In 1982, Goodman got a small role in "Eddie Macon's Run," later performing on stage in "Big River" from 1985 to 1987. He landed his big break into movies in the 1986 flick "True Stories," and later had a brief cameo as "Sweet Dreams," which established him in the kind of roles he would have for much of his career. He followed with roles in the movies "Revenge of the Nerds," "C.H.U.D.," "Sweet Dreams," "The Big Easy" and "Raising Arizona" by the Coen Brothers. In 1988, he landed the role of father Dan Connor on the TV serires "Roseanne" with Roseanne Barr and Sara Gilbert for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1993. The role catapulted him into more movie roles in such films as "The Babe," "Arachnophobia," "The Flintstones" and "King Ralph." He also became a recurring host on "Saturday Night Live," the series that had once rejected him, returning as a host over fourteen times.

During and after "Roseanne," Goodman had guest roles on "The Equalizer," "The Jackie Thomas Show," "Grace Under Fire," "Soul man, "The Simpsons," "The West Wing" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." He received a 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor – Drama Series for his performance as Pahrump, Nevada Judge Robert Bebe in "The West Wing."

Goodman has also been prolific in doing voice-over work and lending his deep baritone voice to animated features. Since 2007, he has been the voice in Dunkin' Donuts commercials and has gone on to do voices in Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove," "Monsters, Inc.," "The Princess and the Frog," and "Monsters University" as well as an episode in the animated TV series "Futurama." Goodman's voice can also be heard on an automated message system at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Known for his great size, he once weighed as much as 400 pounds, but he lost 100 pounds through exercise by 2010.

In theater, Goodman played the Ghost of Christmas Present in the 2008 Kodak Theater production of "A Christmas Carol," starring Christopher Lloyd as Ebenezer Scrooge. He played the role of Pozzo in a Studio 54 revival of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, opposite Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane, reprising the role of Pozzo at the Roundabout Theater Company. His later movie roles include "Evan Almighty," "10 Cloverfield Lane," "Coyote Ugly," "The Artist," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," Argo," "Flight," "The Hangover - Part III" and Patriots Day." He was inducted as a Disney Legend for his work in "Monsters Inc" in 2013. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6767 Hollywood Boulevard for his work in motion pictures in 2017.

Goodman is also known for his charity work. He has appeared on several recovery commercials aired in Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina, where he filmed the movie "Electric Mist," and he appeared in a commercial to raise awareness for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill with Sandra Bullock, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Jack Del Rio, Drew Brees, Emeril Lagasse, James Carville, and Blake Lively.

In 2012, it was reported that Goodman would reunite with Roseanne Barr for a new NBC pilot titled "Downwardly Mobile," but the pilot wasn't picked up. In 2017, they reunited in a "Roseanne" reboot to pick up where the series left off, although it would eliminate the events of the final season.

Goodman and his wife, Annabeth Hartzog-Goodman, are longtime residents of New Orleans, Louisiana. They have one daughter, Molly Evangeline Goodman, who works as a production assistant in the film industry.