Saturday, May 24, 2014

John Goodman:

This is an old article pending revision.

You probably know John Goodman from the TV series "Roseanne" as Dan Conner, or perhaps you know him better from another TV series or movie. This is because he has been featured in numerous films and on television. He was born in Affton, Missouri in June 20, 1952 and went to Missouri State University. He played football, but got injured and decided to become an actor. His father's name is Les Goodman and his mother's name is Virginia. He has a brother and a sister. He married Anna Elizabeth Hartzog in October of 1989 and he has a daugher named Molly Evangeline who was born in 1990. He began acting in commercials and at night clubs.

He is Dan Conner in "Roseanne" who was eventually employed as a mechanic supervisor for Lanford, Illinois. Towards the end of the series he suffers of a heart attack and does not make it. He is absent for much of the final season who is written by Mrs. Conner that he visits his mother, and leaves because of marriage problems, returns, and then gets sick, and makes additional appearances for the last few episodes. The final season is mostly rewritten by Mrs. Conner's autobiography. A few years later, he appears in CBS's "Now & Again", which is a single season series that ends in a cliff hanger. It is about a man named Michael that is rescued by the government and becomes a secret agent. Unfortunately, his entire life is now a secret, which is something that he refuses to agree with. John Goodman is Michael before he dies and is discovered by secret government officials. He also stars in "Always", a fire plane themed motion picture in 1989 by Stephen Spielberg. Other projects he has worked on are "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Beyond the Sea", "Born Yesterday", "Blues Brothers 2000", "Burglar", "Center of the Universe", "Dirty Deeds", "Dirty Work", "Eddie Macon's Run", "Fallen", "Happy Birthday", "Jailbait Babysitter", "Masked and Anonymous", "Matinee", "Mike's New Car", "Murder Ordained", "My First Mister", "On the Edge", "Pie In The Sky". "Pigs Next Door", "Raising Arizona", "Revenge Of The Nerds", "Storytelling", "Sweet Dreams", "The Big Easy", "The Big Lebowski", "The Face of Rage", "The Jack Bull", "The Survivors," "The West Wing", "The Wrong Guys", "True Stories", and "What Planet Are You From?"

There is another talent of John Goodman that is easily noticeable, but ironically perhaps you might not have noticed it before. He is not only an active voice actor, he is also a live action actor for animation adapted into live action. If you are wondering why people would want to do such a thing, it is because animation is in some ways less expensive to produce things that would be very complicated to produce regularly in live action. But when animation is adapted into a live action motion picture, immaginations are at work to make it a possibility.

The Flintstones are animated and originally made in the 1960s. Many spin offs and films were made afterwards, all in animation. In 1994, the Flintstones was made into a live action motion picture. Other stars are Rosie O'Donnell and Elizabeth Taylor. Fred Flintstone And Barney Rubble are taking a test. Their tests are switched, and Fred becomes an executive, only to become the victim of another executive's embezzlement. Similar to Tbe Pebbles And Bamm Bamm Show, Pebbles and Bamm Bamm are a few years older than they are in most of the animated episodes.

Speed Racer is another animated series, which was made in Japan by Tatsunoko Productions around the same time that The Flintstones was made (first in 1967 and again in 1997). Around the same time that The Flintstones became live action, a live action Speed Racer motion picture went into development. It was finished and released in 2008 with after going through many different actors and producers. This is of course considered a live action motion picture, but many of the special effects are actually animated. Speed Racer recieved even more problems during its production because of an animal abuse accusation.

The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle is a motion picture that was released in 2000 that is adapted from "Ponsomby Britt" and Gamma Productions 1960s and 1970s. It is a variety series, but the motion picture is based on the original character stories.

He has a role in many recent holiday specials, usually as Santa Claus. In 2006, another version of "The Year Without A Santa Claus." was released. The original was produced in 1974 in stop motion with animated special effects by Rankin-Bass. The remake stars John Goodman as Santa Claus along with Delta Burke. Mickey Rooney and Shirley Booth were the original voices in 1974.

John Goodman played the live action versions in the father roles of each animated series. In The Flintstones live action motion picture, he is Fred Flintstone, with Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma Flinstone. He is Pops in the Speed Racer live action motion picture, with Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer. In Rocky and Bullwinkle's live action motion picture adaptation, John Goodman is a police officer in Oklahoma.

There is a lot that can be accomplished easily in adapting a film from animation into live action with John Goodman starring in both major and minor roles. Whenever he isn't starring in live action, he can also be heard in animation. Either in Live Action or in Animation, he does the work of acting for holiday themed movies, and he is usually Santa Claus. In 1998 he is Santa Claus for Rudolph The Red Nosed Raindeer-The Movie. He is also Frosty in Mendelson-Melendez's "Frosty Returns", a unique special since most Frosty appeareances are because of Rankin-Bass Productions. He is also a Santa Claus in "Futurama".

Several Other examples are "Cars", "Kronk's New Groove", "The Emperor's New Groove", a very basic and crude adaptation of one of Rudyard Kipling's books called "The Jungle Book 2", and "The Princess and the Frog".

If you still do not know who John Goodman is, it will not be very long before you do, since he works in not only numerous films and tv series, but also different and specific varieties of them. Whenever there is a live action film needing to be adapted from animation, as well as potential roles as Santa Claus, filmmakers will most likely rely on him.

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