John Goodman’s place of birth is in St Missouri and his father was called Leslie Francis Goodman who was a postal worker and he died because of heart attack when he was still two years. Since his father was dead, his mother Virginia had to take over different activities so that she can support her family. John Goodman was born with a brother and a sister and he is German, Welsh, English and Irish ancestry.  Goodman attended Afton High School and he played football while he dabbled in the theater. He got the football scholarship to go to Missouri State University.

John Goodman was injured while in college and this ended his football career and decided to focus more on movies. He worked as a waiter and a bartender. His first acting roles were in plays, commercials and voice-overs. Before getting the roles in movies, he was performing off- Broadway and in the dinner theater.

John Goodman is married and he lives with his wife in New Orleans. His wife is called Anna Beth and they have a daughter called Molly Evangeline who is 25 years old. She works like a production assistant in film industry.  John Goodman had to deal with alcoholism and said that sometime he had to drink between the shows and he does not know how he was never been sacked. However, he sobbed up in 2007 and he is not drunk anymore from that time.  He attended Alcoholic Anonymous meetings and he lost over 100 pounds in the year 2010.  He started to exercise and to keep the journal about the food that he takes and this helped him to keep the weight away. Her slimmer and better figure attracted attention.  

John Goodman became a subject of a topic when people were concerned if he is death or alive because of a dead hoax that was spread online, however he is still alive. His net worth is over 65 million dollars.  John Goodman had an original role in Big River where he played as Pap Finn. He was nominated for the Drama Desk as the Best Featured Actor in the musical.