John Goodman Biography

A big, amiable character actor with dozens of movies to his credit, John Goodman is still perhaps best known for his portrayal of the blue-collar husband and father on TV’s Roseanne (1988-97).

A Missouri native, he moved to New York in the late 1970s to work as an actor.

Goodman was on Broadway and getting parts in movies, TV commercials and television shows by the mid-1980s, and the long-running role of Dan Connor on Roseanne made him famous and earned him six Emmy nominations.

His turn as an escaped felon in the Coen brothers‘ comedy Raising Arizona (1987, with Nicolas Cage) proved he was just as likable on the big screen, even while playing characters of questionable integrity.

Since 1989 he has been a frequent host and guest on Saturday Night Live, and has had great success doing voice work in such animated features as The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) and Monsters, Inc. (2001, with Billy Crystal).

A frequent player in the Coen brothers’ movies, he has appeared in Barton Fink (1991), The Big Lebowski (1998) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000, starring George Clooney).

Although he is known mostly for comedy, Goodman has had dramatic roles as well, including as Babe Ruth in The Babe (1992), as Nicolas Cage’s paramedic partner in Bringing Out the Dead (1999, by Martin Scorsese) and as Bobby Darin’s pal in Beyond the Sea (2004, with Kevin Spacey as Darin).

His other film roles include Evan Almighty (2007) and Speed Racer (2008), and in 2010 he appeared in the cable TV series Treme.