Biography

With a talent whose size is proportional to his girth, John Goodman has proven himself both a distinguished character actor and engaging leading man. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Goodman went to Southwestern Missouri State University on a football scholarship, but an injury compelled him to seek out a less strenuous major. He chose the university drama department, attending classes with such stars-to-be as Tess Harper and Kathleen Turner. Moving to New York in 1975, he supported himself by performing in children's and dinner theatre, appearing in TV commercials, and working as a bouncer.

Goodman made his off-Broadway debut in a 1978 staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a year later graduated to Broadway in Loose Ends. His best Broadway showing was as the drunken, brutish "Pap" in Big River, Rodger Miller's 1985 musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. In films from 1983, Goodman has occasionally played out-and-out villains or louts (The Big Easy, Barton Fink), but his essential likeability has endeared him to audiences even when his on-screen behavior is at its least sympathetic. He contributed topnotch supporting appearances to such films as Everybody's All-American (1988), Sea of Love (1989), Arachnophobia (1990) and Stella (1990), and has starred in such assignments as King Ralph (1991), The Babe (1992, as Babe Ruth), Born Yesterday (1993) and The Flintstones (1994, as Fred Flintstone). Goodman did some of his best work in Matinee (1993), in which he starred as William Castle-esque horror flick entrepreneur Lawrence Woolsey, and topped himself in The Big Lebowski (1998), playing a quirky security-store owner. The following year he could be seen in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead as an ambulance driver alongside Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames.

Between 1988 and 1996, Goodman appeared as blue-collar patriarch Dan Conner on the hit TV sitcom Roseanne, a role that has earned him four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe award; additional TV credits include the made-for-cable Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995, in the title role) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1995, as Mitch), for which he earned another Emmy nomination. Announcing that the 1996-97 season of Roseanne would be his last, Goodman limited himself to infrequent appearances on the series, his absences explained away as a by-product of the heart attack suffered by his alter ego Dan Conner at the end of the previous season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmography

Jungle Book 2, The (2003) (voice) .... Baloo
Masked & Anonymous (2003) .... Uncle Sweetheart
Dirty Deeds (2002) .... Tony
Mike's New Car (2002) (V) (voice) .... James P. 'Sulley' Sullivan
74th Annual Academy Awards, The (2002) (TV) .... Himself
Monsters, Inc. (2001) (voice) .... James P. 'Sulley' Sullivan
On the Edge (2001) (TV) .... (segment Happy Birthday)
Storytelling (2001) .... Marty Livingston ('Non-fiction')
One Night at McCool's (2001) .... Detective Dehling
My First Mister (2001) .... Benjamin Wilson
Happy Birthday (2000) .... The Dean
Saturday Night Live: Presidential Bash 2000 (2000) (TV) (archive footage) .... Linda Tripp
Emperor's New Groove, The (2000) (voice) .... Pacha
Saturday Night Live: Best of the Clinton Scandal (2000) (V) .... Linda Tripp
"Normal, Ohio" (2000) TV Series .... William 'Butch' Gamble/Rex Gamble (original pilot)
"Pigs Next Door" (2000) TV Series
... aka "Muca Beal Dorais" (2000) (Ireland: Irish title)
Coyote Ugly (2000) .... Bill
Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, The (2000) .... Oklahoma Cop
... aka Abenteuer von Rocky und Bullwinkle, Die (2000) (Germany)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) .... Big Dan Teague
... aka O' Brother (2000) (France)
What Planet Are You From? (2000) .... Roland Jones
Dancing Outlaw II: Jesco Goes to Hollywood (1999)
Runner, The (1999) .... Deepthroat
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary (1999) (TV)
Bringing Out the Dead (1999) .... Larry Verber
"Now and Again" (1999) TV Series .... Michael Wiseman
Jack Bull, The (1999) (TV) .... Judge Tolliver
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998) (V) (voice) .... Santa Claus
Real Macaw, The (1998) (voice) .... Voice of Mac
Dirty Work (1998) (uncredited) .... Adrian Riggins the Mayor
Roger Miller Remembered (1998) (TV) .... Himself
Big Lebowski, The (1998) .... Walter Sobchak
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) .... Mighty Mack McTeer
Fallen (1998) .... Jonesy
Borrowers, The (1997) .... Ocious P. Potter
Pyst (1996) (VG) .... King Mattruss
Mother Night (1996) .... Maj. Frank Wirtanen
Pie in the Sky (1996) .... Alan Davenport
Streetcar Named Desire, A (1995) (TV) .... Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell
Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995) (TV) .... Huey P. Long, Jr.
Flintstones, The (1994) .... Fred Flintstone
All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! (1994) (TV) .... Himself
... aka Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! (1994) (TV) (USA: complete title)
Hudsucker Proxy, The (1994) (as Karl Mundt) .... Newsreel Announcer
... aka Hudsucker - Der große Sprung (1994) (Germany)
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) (voice) .... Rex
Born Yesterday (1993) .... Harry Brock
Matinee (1993) .... Lawrence Woolsey
Frosty Returns (1992) (TV) (voice) .... Frosty the Snowman
Babe, The (1992) .... George Herman 'Babe' Ruth
Barton Fink (1991) .... Charlie Meadows/Karl 'Madman' Mundt
King Ralph (1991) .... Ralph Jones
Arachnophobia (1990) .... Delbert McClintock
Thrills, Chills & Spiders: The Making of Arachnophobia (1990) (TV) .... Himself
Stella (1990) .... Ed Munn, Ed's Bar Owner
Always (1989) .... Al Yackey
Sea of Love (1989) .... Detective Sherman
Everybody's All-American (1988) .... Lawrence
... aka When I Fall in Love (1988)
"Roseanne" (1988) TV Series .... Dan Conner
Punchline (1988) .... John Krytsick
Wrong Guys, The (1988) .... Duke Earle
Murder Ordained (1987) (TV) .... Hugh Rayburn
Big Easy, The (1987) .... Andre DeSoto
Burglar (1987) .... Detective Nyswander
Raising Arizona (1987) .... Gale
True Stories (1986) .... Louis Fyne
Sweet Dreams (1985) .... Otis
Revenge of the Nerds (1984) .... Coach Harris
Maria's Lovers (1984) .... Frank
C.H.U.D. (1984) .... Cop in Diner
Survivors, The (1983) .... Commando
Heart of Steel (1983) (TV) .... Raymond
"Chiefs" (1983) (mini) TV Series .... Newt 'Tub' Murray
Eddie Macon's Run (1983) .... Hebert
Face of Rage, The (1983) (TV) .... Fred
Jailbait Babysitter (1978)