John Goodman
(Detective Sherman)

John Goodman was born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1952. His father passed away after a heart attack when Goodman was only two years old, and his older brother Leslie became his role model. Leslie in turn supported Goodman as best he could. When Goodman decided to pursue a career in acting, Leslie would save five or 10 dollars at a time for his younger brother and eventually had enough to pay for Goodman's graduate degree. While in college, one of Goodman's acting classmates was Kathleen Turner. After graduating Southwest Missouri State, Goodman went to New York and worked his way through dinner theater, off-off-Broadway and off-Broadway before finally making it to Broadway as the star of Loose Ends. From there he won small film roles in C.H.U.D. and Revenge of the Nerds (both 1984). He first gained notice in David Byrne's True Stories (1986) and the next year began his association with the Coen Brothers in the comedy Raising Arizona. What really made his career take off was his television role as husband Dan Conner in Roseanne. For six years in a row, from 1989-95, Goodman was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and he won a Golden Globe for the role in 1993. During those years he reunited with the Coen Brothers for Barton Fink, received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Babe Ruth in Babe and had a huge hit as Fred Flintstone in The Flintstones. The Coen Brothers featured Goodman for a third time in The Big Lebowski (1998) and again two years later in O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Last year, Goodman's voice was featured as the lead monster in Monsters Inc. Next February, he'll be supplying the voice for Baloo the Bear in Jungle Book II. Goodman is featured in next year's Masked & Anonymous alongside a host of stars, including Val Kilmer, Jeff Bridges and songwriter Bob Dylan. As for television roles, he hasn't had a long-lasting sitcom since Roseanne, but he has hosted Saturday Night Live 11 times and made numerous special appearances on the program, often as Linda Tritt in sketches satirizing the Monica Lewinsky scandal.