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John Goodman (born June 20, 1952 in Affton, MissouriJohn Goodman is an American actor.

Goodman 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.

Standing 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) and weighing nearly 400 lb (180 kg), he is best known for comic roles, including Roseanne Barr's husband in the TV sitcom . Goodman has appeared in many roles in movies of The Coen Brothers. Goodman is frequently cast in roles depicting blue-collar characters or the best friend of the lead character in films like , 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 ; it, too, was critically panned and quickly cancelled.

Goodman has also been a popular guest host a number of times on NBC's , as former-President Glen Allen Walken.

In two different roles, he became head of state under very unlikely circumstances. On when President of the United States Josiah Bartlet yielded power temporarily under the terms of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution and in when the current ruling family of the United Kingdom dies in a freak electrical accident.

Goodman had to lose weight in order to play Babe Ruth in the 1992 movie .

Much of Goodman's roles are that of the best friend to the lead character, which he has put effectively to use in several movies like again as a police partner only to Denzel Washington.

In 2004 there were allegations of him being found in his home dead. These allegations are untrue. He is still living.