John Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American film, television, and stage actor best known for his roles in Coen Brother movies and as Dan Conner in Roseanne. Goodman was born in Affton ,  Missouri and never took theater studies seriously in high school.  It wasn’t until he attended  Southwest Missouri State University, now  Missouri State University , on a football scholarship that he started actively looking into the dramatic arts.  After suffering a career-ending injury, he left  Missouri and went to  New York to become an actor.

Early Career and Other Non-Coen Brothers work. Goodman got his first work in a Burger King commercial and went on to get more work in commercials and voice-over work until he debuted in a Broadway production of Loose Ends along side Dennis Quaid, Bruce Willis, and Kevin Kline. From there, he went on to have minor roles in films like Jailbait Babysitter, Eddie Macon’s Run, and Revenge of the Nerds.  It wasn’t until 1987 that Goodman got his two biggest breaks on screen with getting the part of Dan Conner in Roseanne and starring in the Coen Brothers’ second major motion picture, Raising  Arizona  . Since this, Goodman has become a household name being the lead in several films and has hosted Saturday Night Live the third most times with 12. (Steve Martin 15, Alec Baldwin 14)

 

Work with the Coen Brothers. In his four major roles in Coen Brothers movies, he had a small part in The Hudsucker Proxy, Goodman typically plays a violent angry character who can also get in his own way sometimes.  This type of character is in contrast to what Goodman is used to playing, the big guy with a big heart.

In his most mellow role as Gale Snoats in Raising Arizona, he plays as one half of a brother duo (William Forsythe plays Evelle Snoats) who befriend the film’s protagonist, H.I. McDunnough (played by Nicolas Cage) while in prison. While Gale and his brother are a pair of bumbling goofballs, they don’t do anything wrong until the end when they beat and tie up H.I. and take Nathan Jr. to collect the reward and also perform armed robbery of a bank.

In Barton Fink, Goodman plays the seemingly dim-witted Charlie Meadows, a role the Coens say they wrote specifically for Goodman. Later in the movie, Barton Fink is visited by two police officers who reveal that Meadows is actually a killer by the name of Karl “Madman” Mundt.

 

In The Big Lebowski, Goodman plays Walter Sobchak, best friend of The Dude. In this role he is seen as hostile right off the bat by yelling at Donny and pulling a gun on a fellow bowler for saying he didn’t fault.

 

In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Goodman plays Big Dan Teague, a one-eyed con man who claims to be selling the word of God, but ends up beating people and taking their money and is later learned to be a member of the Klu Klux Klan. Since this movie is based off of Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey,” this character plays the role of the Cyclops.—Joseph Anthony