John Goodman

Biography

John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He rose to prominence in television before becoming an acclaimed and popular film actor. Goodman has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Vanity Fair has called him "among our very finest actors".

Goodman is known for his collaborations with the Coen brothers, appearing in films such as Raising Arizona (1987), Barton Fink (1991), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). He took leading roles in King Ralph (1991), The Babe (1992), Matinee (1993), The Flintstones (1994), and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) as well as supporting roles in Revenge of the Nerds (1984), True Stories (1986),  Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Evan Almighty (2007), Speed Racer (2008), The Artist (2011), Flight (2012), Argo (2012), and Atomic Blonde (2017). He voiced roles in The Emperor's New Groove franchise (2000–2008), the Monsters, Inc. franchise (2001–present), Bee Movie (2007) and Smurfs (2025).

On television, Goodman gained recognition playing the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series Roseanne (1988–1997; 2018), and The Conners (2018–2025). Goodman has played an English professor in the drama series Treme (2010–2011), a military contractor in the legal drama series Damages (2011), a Republican senator in the political satire Alpha House (2013–2014), and a televangelist in the comedy series The Righteous Gemstones (2019–2025). He also guest-starred in The West Wing (2003–2004), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006), and Community (2011–2012), and is a member of the Five Timers Club, having hosted Saturday Night Live 13 times from 1989 to 2013.

Goodman started his career at The Public Theatre acting in numerous productions including Henry IV, Part 1 (1981), The Skin of Our Teeth (1998), and The Seagull (2001). He made his Broadway debut in Big River (1985), for which Goodman received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical nomination. He returned to Broadway in revivals of the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot (2009), and the newspaper comedy The Front Page (2016). Goodman made his West End debut in a revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo (2015).

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