Actor John Goodman is a St. Louis Native

John Goodman

Actor John Goodman who is best known for his role as Dan Conner in the long running sitcom “Roseanne” is another in the long list of famous St. Louis people.

John was born in Afton, Missouri in 1952.  He attended Afton High School where he played football and also began to gain interest in theater. John won a scholarship to Southwest Missouri State University but an injury abruptly ended his football career so he dove into his second love which was drama. He studied at the schools well regarded drama program and in 1975 decided to leave Missouri and head to New York to become a professional actor.

For the next few years John did his time in commercials and doing voice overs as you might expect any other struggling actor would do.

In the early 80’s he spent much of his time auditioning for different parts on Broadway and in the movie theaters landing minor parts. It wasn’t until 1986 when he got his big break serving as the role of Louis Fyne in David Byrne’s American musical film True Stories.

In 1988 John landed his most important role as the husband on the hit TV show Roseanne with comedian and actress Roseanne Barr. The show aired on ABC from 1988 to 1997 and made the actor John Goodman a household name.

It is more than worth noting that he has also had plenty of roles in numerous films by Joel and Ethan Coen including Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou and Barton Fink.

Other notable John Goodman films would be The Babe, King Ralph, The Flintstones, Evan Almighty, Speed Racer, Arachnophobia, Fallen and Punchline.

John married his wife, Annabeth Hartzog in New Orleans in 1988 and they were married in October of 1989 and the couple had a daughter named Molly Evangeline born on August 31st, 1990.

Mr. Goodman now resides in New Orleans, Louisiana where they have excepted him as one of their own.

Those of us from St. Louis, however, know where John Goodman hails from and we are proud to say he was born and raised here whenever the topic of famous St. Louisans is initiated.