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John Goodman. Date unknown. |
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John Goodman
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Forecourt Ceremony held on Thursday, November 14, 2013
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Born: June 20, 1952, in Affton, Missouri
Age at the time of the ceremony: 61 |
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John Goodman is perhaps our best-known character actor. With his distinctive voice, size and unforgettable face, Goodman won hearts with his Dan on Roseanne, and has since co-starred or starred in quite a range of films. He works a lot.
Goodman was born in Affton, a suburb of St. Louis. With his father dying of a heart attack when John was only two, mother Virginia worked as a waitress in a BBQ joint and took in laundry to support John, sister Elisabeth and brother Leslie.
Attending Affton High School, John enjoyed football and hung around the theatre department. Going to Missouri State on a football scholarship, Goodman focused on theatre arts after injuring himself on the gridiron. He graduated in 1975.
With a loan from Virginia, Goodman headed to New York City, where he worked odd jobs and looked for acting work. This went on for some time, but there was something about the big guy. . . He got his face slapped in television ads for Mennen Skin Bracer and proclaimed "Thanks, I needed that!" and did an awful lot of Off-Broadway Theatre. He auditioned for the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1980, but didn't make it. One of his first film roles was playing an inmate named Fred in The Face of Rage with Dianne Weist, aired over ABC in March 1983. He had a supporting role as Coach Harris in Revenge of the Nerds (released in August 1984) with Robert Carradine.
Goodman appeared in numerous roles on Broadway in the musical Big River for 1,005 performances, from April 1985 to September 1987, and for which, he received much attention. Goodman received even more attention by being cast as husband Dan to Roseanne Barr in 220 episodes of Roseanne aired over ABC from October 1988 to May 1997. An immensely popular program, Goodman won the Golden Globe Award for his work on the show in 1993 (so did Barr, for that matter).
While Roseanne was on the air, Goodman took supporting roles in many, many films, only some of which were: as Louis Fine in True Stories (released in October 1986) with David Byrne, as a corrupt New Orleans police officer inThe Big Easy (released in August 1987) with Dennis Quaid, and as a newly-released con in Raising Arizona (released in April 1987) with Nicolas Cage.
He played aspiring comic Sally Field's husband in Punchline (released in October 1988), and hit the Big Time, working for director Steven Spielberg in his remake of A Guy Named Joe called Always (released in December 1989) with Holly Hunter.
Goodman was now able to headline in features. His first was as King Ralph (released in February 1991) with Peter O'Toole. Working for the Coen brothers again, he took a supporting role in their Barton Fink (released in August 1991) with John Turturro.
Leading roles continued: Goodman played Babe Ruth in The Babe (released in April 1992) with Kelly McGillis as Claire Ruth, he played a schlock movie producer in director Joe Dante's Matinee (released in January 1993) with Cathy Moriarty, and also headlined as Fred in The Flintstones (released in May 1994) with Rick Moranis as Barney. Despite horrible reviews, The Flintstones became a big hit.
For television, Goodman played Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire with Jessica Lange as Blanche, aired over CBS in October 1995. With Roseanne going off the air, Goodman was kept plenty busy: he starred as the bad guy in The Borrowers (released in December 1997) with Jim Broadbent, and famously played Jeff Bridges' sidekick in The Big Lebowski (released in March 1998).
He played a one-eyed Bible salesman in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (released in December 2000) with George Clooney, and did the voice for Sullivan in Monsters, Inc. (released in November 2001) with Billy Crystal.
In Evan Almighty (released in June 2007), he played an evil congressman to Steve Carell's good congressman. Back on Broadway, Goodman took a supporting role as Pozzo in a revival of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot for 84 perfs in April to June 2009.
Goodman went to Germany to play Pope Sergius II in the English-language Die Papstin - Pope Joan (released in October 2009) with Johanna Wokalek in the title role. Goodman played a studio boss in the silent comedy The Artist (which had its US Premiere at the Chinese on November 8, 2011) with Jean Dujadin.
Goodman played the role of makeup man John Chambers in Argo (released in October 2012) with Ben Affleck, which puts Goodman in two Best Picture winners in a row. So now, Goodman was invited to come to the Chinese and make his imprints in the Forecourt.
For director George Clooney, Goodman was on the team of The Monuments Men (released in February 2014) with Matt Damon. Returning to Broadway, Goodman played Sherrif Hartley in the comedy The Front Page with Nathan Lane as Walter Burns, for 117 perfs, from October 2017 to January 2018.
When it came to be time to revive Roseanne over ABC, Goodman was there for 10 episodes, from March to May 2018, and when Roseanne Barr was removed from the show, he kept on with the subsequent The Conners over ABC beginning in October 2018. He has appeared in eight episodes of Black Earth Rising with Michael Coel from the BBC and Netflix, airing in January 2019, and 18 episodes of The Righteous Gemstones with Danny McBride airing over HBO in August 2019.
Goodman continues with Captive State with (released in March 2019), lends his Sulley voice to Monsters at Work, aired over Disney+ in July 2021, and did the voice for Fat Freddy in 11 episodes of The Freak Brothers aired over TubiTV in November 2021. |
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TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. John Goodman Forecourt block. Executed by unknown, Thursday, November 14, 2013. 36 x 24 inches. |
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TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. John Goodman Forecourt ceremony, Thursday, November 14, 2013. John Goodman, holding his cement stylus, gives everyone a grin. |
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