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Biography
John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952 in Affton, Missouri) is an American actor.
Goodman went to Affton Senior High. He won an athletics scholarship to play football at Southwest 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 or as the best friend of the lead character, for example in Sea of Love, as Al Pacino's police partner, The Big Lebowski's best friend, Walter, as the disgruntled Vietnam vet Walter, 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 an atypical gay man who returns to his small hometown to start a new life. Although the show projected a positive message for homosexuals, 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 a number of times on NBC's Saturday Night Live. Goodman also has 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.
Filmography
Futurama 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
Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995) (TV) as Huey Long
The Flintstones (1994) as Fred Flintstone
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) 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)
Trivia
John Goodman was the first guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
