John Goodman

John Goodman on NBC's The West Wing

John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952 in Affton, Missouri) is an American actor.

Goodman went to Affton High School. He won an athletics scholarship to play football at Missouri State University as a teenager, but subsequently decided to become an actor, leaving Missouri for New York in 1975. He then appeared on stage off-Broadway, in dinner theatres and on TV advertisements before playing character parts in movies in the early 1980s.

Goodman is best known for comic roles, including Roseanne Barr's husband in the TV sitcom Roseanne, the voice of Sulley in Monsters, Inc., and Fred Flintstone in the movie The Flintstones. He has appeared in many roles in movies by The Coen Brothers. Goodman is frequently cast as blue-collar characters and/or as the main character's sidekick, for example in Sea of Love, as Al Pacino's police partner, in The Big Lebowski as Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski's best friend Walter Sobchak, and Fallen, as police partner to Denzel Washington. Standing 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) and weighing nearly 400 lb (180 kg), Goodman had to lose weight in order to play Babe Ruth in the 1992 movie The Babe.

In 2000, Goodman had his own short-lived sitcom called Normal, Ohio, in which he played a gay man who returns to his small hometown to start a new life. Viewers did not respond well and critics panned the show. In 2004, he starred alongside Jean Smart in the CBS sitcom Center of the Universe; it, too, was critically panned and quickly cancelled.

Goodman has also been a popular guest host on NBC's Saturday Night Live (he had auditioned to be a castmember in 1980, but was rejected). Goodman also had a recurring role on The West Wing, as fictional former House Speaker Glen Allen Walken, briefly becoming President when President of the United States Josiah Bartlet yielded power temporarily under the terms of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. He also played someone who unexpectedly became a head of state in the film King Ralph, after the ruling family of the United Kingdom dies in a freak electrical accident.

John Goodman has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame and is part-owner of O'Leary's, an Irish pub restaurant in South St. Louis County.

John Goodman temporarily replaced the late John Belushi (Jake Blues) as Dan Aykroyd's partner in the latter's popular Blues Brothers Band. He first appeared as "Mighty" Mack Blues on Saturday Night Live on March 25, 1995 and went on to star in the film Blues Brothers 2000. He continued to perform alongside Aykroyd (Elwood Blues) and Jim Belushi (Zee Blues) through 2001. Soon after that, health problems forced him to shelve the character.

Goodman has been married to Annabeth Hartzog since 1989. They share one child, daughter Molly Evangeline (born August 31, 1990). Goodman resides in New Orleans, Louisiana when he isn't involved in the production of a film or television series, and he participates in Mardi Gras every year.

Filmography

Evan Almighty (2007) as Congressman Long
The Year Without a Santa Claus (2006) as Santa Claus
Drunkboat (2006) as Mr. Fletcher
Cars (2006) as Monster Truck Sulley (cameo - voice)
Kronk's New Groove (2005) (voice) as Pacha
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (2005)
Futurama (voice) as the Evil Robot Santa Claus
Center of the Universe (2004) TV Series
Beyond the Sea (2004)
Clifford's Really Big Movie (2004) (voice) as George Wolfsbottom
Home of Phobia (2004) as Rodney
Father of the Pride (2004) TV Series (voice) as Larry the Lion
The Jungle Book 2 (2003) (voice) as Baloo
Masked and Anonymous (2003) as Uncle Sweetheart
Dirty Deeds (2002) as Tony
Mike's New Car (2002) (V) (voice) as Sulley
Monsters, Inc. (2001) (voice) as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan
On the Edge (2001/II) (TV) as The Dean (segment "Happy Birthday")
Storytelling (2001) as Marty Livingston ('Non-fiction')
One Night at McCool's (2001) as Detective Dehling
My First Mister (2001) as Benjamin Wilson
Happy Birthday (2000/I) as The Dean
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) (voice) as Pacha
Saturday Night Live: Best of the Clinton Scandal (2000) (TV) as Linda Tripp
Normal, Ohio (2000) TV Series as William 'Butch' Gamble/Rex Gamble (original pilot)
Pigs Next Door (2000) TV Series (voice)
Coyote Ugly (2000) as Bill
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000) as Oklahoma Cop
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) as Big Dan Teague
What Planet Are You From? (2000) as Roland Jones
The Runner (1999) as Deepthroat
Bringing Out the Dead (1999) as Larry Verber
Now and Again (1999) TV Series playing the original Michael Wiseman in two episodes.
The Jack Bull (1999) (TV) as Judge Tolliver
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998) (V) (voice) as Santa Claus
The Real Macaw (1998) (voice) as Voice of Mac
Dirty Work (1998) (uncredited) as Adrian Riggins the Mayor
The Big Lebowski (1998) as Walter Sobchak
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) as Mighty Mack McTeer
Fallen (1998) as Jonesy
The Borrowers (1997) as Ocious P. Potter
Pyst (1996) (VG) as King Mattruss
Mother Night (1996) as Maj. Frank Wirtanen
Pie in the Sky (1996) as Alan Davenport
A Streetcar Named Desire (1995) (TV) as Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell
The Flintstones (1995) as Fred Flintstone
Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995) (TV) as Huey Long
The Little Rascals (1994 Movie) as The Lumber Salesman
*The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) (as Karl Mundt) as Rockwell Newsreel Announcer
*We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) (voice) as Rex
*Born Yesterday (1993) as Harry Brock
*Matinee (1993) as Lawrence Woolsey
*Frosty Returns (1992) (TV) (voice) as Frosty the Snowman
*The Babe (1992) as George Herman 'Babe' Ruth
*Barton Fink (1991) as Charlie Meadows
*King Ralph (1991) as Ralph Jones
*Arachnophobia (1990) as Delbert McClintock
*Stella (1990) as Ed Munn
*Always (1989) as Al Yackey
*Sea of Love (1989) as Det. Sherman
*Everybody's All-American (1988) as Lawrence
*Roseanne (1988 - 1997) TV Series as Daniel 'Dan' Conner
*Punchline (1988) as John Krytsick
*The Wrong Guys (1988) as Duke Earle
*Murder Ordained (1987) (TV) as Hugh Rayburn
*The Big Easy (1987) as Det. Andre DeSoto
*Burglar (1987) as Detective Nyswander
*Raising Arizona (1987) as Gale
*True Stories (1986) as Louis Fyne
*Sweet Dreams (1985) as Otis
*Maria's Lovers (1984) as Frank
*C.H.U.D. (1984) as Cop in Diner
*Revenge of the Nerds (1984) as Coach Harris
*Heart of Steel (1983) (TV) as Raymond Bohupinsky
*Chiefs (1983) (mini) TV Series as Newt 'Tub' Murray
*Eddie Macon's Run (1983) as Hebert
*The Survivors (1983) as Commando
*The Face of Rage (1983) (TV) as Fred
*Jailbait Babysitter'' (1978)

External links

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* St. Louis Walk of Fame