For other people of the same name, see John Goodman (disambiguation).
[>>]Source: Wikipedia
For other people of the same name, see John Goodman (disambiguation).
John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne (1988-1997), for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for providing the voice of Sulley in Monsters, Inc. Other prominent roles he has portrayed include his leading voice role in Frosty Returns, his recent supporting roles in Argo, Flight, and The Artist, and a cameo in C.H.U.D. As a film actor, he has frequently collaborated with the Coen Brothers, including in Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Early life and education
Goodman was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 20, 1952. His mother, Virginia Roos (née Loosmore), was a store clerk and waitress who worked at Jack and Phil's Bar-B-Que, while his father, Leslie F. Goodman, was a postal worker who died of a heart attack in 1954. He has a sister, Elisabeth Horvath, and a brother, Leslie. He is of English, Welsh, and German ancestry.
Goodman went to Affton High School, where he played football and dabbled in theater. He won a football scholarship to Southwest Missouri State University, now Missouri State University. He pledged to Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, but was not formally initiated until several years later. He discovered SoMo's drama program and studied there with actors Kathleen Turner and Tess Harper. After a college injury ended his football career, he decided to become a professional actor and left Missouri for New York in 1975.
With a small bankroll from his brother, Goodman found an apartment on Ninth Avenue and 51st Street, near Manhattan's Theater District, and attempted unsuccessfully to earn money as a bartender and waiter. He was soon to find modest success on stage, though, in commercials and in voiceover performances. He was the person who slapped himself in the commercial for Skin Bracer by Mennen, saying the famous line "Thanks ... I needed that!" He performed off-Broadway and in dinner theatres before landing character roles in movies during the early 1980s.
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