Goodman gets Walk of Fame star

Everyone’s favorite everyman

LOS ANGELES, March 11, (RTRS): With his jocular, yet authoritative voice matched with a wide grin and gleaming eyes, John Goodman could very well be the definition of a character actor. The guy filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen routinely cast as the sidekick who lands some of the most memorable lines in their movies or whom Lorne Michaels frequently calls up to host and guest star on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” With the latter, it helps that he seems comfortable with dressing in drag.

And, despite being a marquee name with a scroll of TV, film, and theater credits, Goodman is perfectly fine with this distinction. “I still consider myself a character actor,” Goodman says. “I think it’s a good thing. I think every actor’s a character actor to a certain extent. Character actor has a lot of different definitions. I’m just a mutt. I just keep going for the bone.”

But to a legion of Goodman’s fans, he will always be Dan Conner, the dry- humored male counterpart to Roseanne Barr’s cackling title character in her trailblazing ABC sitcom about a working-class American family in flyover country. Through its nine-season run, the series conquered harsh truths including money woes, teenage sex and birth control, LGBT relationships, and domestic violence.

In the process, Goodman landed seven Emmy noms and a Golden Globe for the role. (He finally won an Emmy in 2007 for guest actor on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”) So it’s only fitting that when he receives his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 10, it will be placed a few down from the one belonging to his TV wife.

“The Carsey-Werner Co, (which produced ‘Roseanne,’) wanted me to meet him to see if I liked him to play my husband,” Barr recalls of Goodman’s casting. “My comedian friends were excited for me to meet him, too many of them knew him and admired him. Within two minutes, I couldn’t wait to work with him — he laughed at all my jokes. That is what always makes me like people. Carsey-Werner

his client not guilty of charges filed after a handgun was found in his carry-on bag during a security scan at Atlanta’s airport.

The rapper, whose real name is Juaquin brought the right guy for the right job.”

Barr says she loves that their stars will be near each other (“The Conners will live on!”). Despite reports of studios tinkering with strategies to get more blue-collar viewers in light of the Donald Trump presidency, Barr says she doesn’t think “Roseanne” would be able to be made today because her series “belonged in the late ’80s and throughout the ’90s — it was a show about those times.” Also, she says, “there will never be another John Goodman.”

“I admire everything he is in; he can make us laugh or cry,” she says. “He is a great actor. I learned so much from just watching him work. I love his ability to create layers of a character. No one does it better. I love him on ‘SNL’ too; his comic timing is unbelievably on the money.”

Apperances

Although Goodman has hosted “SNL” an impressive 13 times, his frequent guest appearances on the longrunning sketch show are met with just as much fanfare. His portrayal of Monica Lewinsky’s poorly chosen confidante, Linda Tripp, was so memorable and visceral that it was rumored to be the reason she lost weight and underwent plastic surgery. More recently, he appeared alongside fellow frequent “SNL” guest Alec Baldwin, playing Donald Trump’s then-incoming secretary of state Rex Tillerson as a brash Vladimir Putin bestie who would be one of the ones actually running things in Washington.

Goodman says this sketch had an “unusually quick” turnaround, as he found out about it on the Tuesday before that Saturday’s taping. He fit in rehearsals around his performance schedule for Broadway’s “The Front Page.” And no hard feelings, OK Rex? “I don’t know that much about,” Goodman concedes. “I just wanted to have fun and ‘SNL’ is my favorite place to be.” Despite these appearances and roles on other politically themed works such as Amazon’s Washingtonset comedy “Alpha House” or movies

Malphurs, was arrested in October 2014. He faced charges including carrying a weapon in an unauthorized location. Defense attorney Drew Findling said a like “Argo” and “You Don’t Know Jack,” Goodman doesn’t necessarily believe it’s a requirement for actors to use their platforms as soap boxes.

“I think it’s important for actors to learn their lines,” he says. Goodman’s latest film is Warner Bros’ “Kong: Skull Island,” an action-packed ensembler about the inhabitants of the mysterious land mass that the giant ape calls home. He plays Bill Randa, an adventuresome sport with an ulterior motive and a knack for putting together a crackpot team of explorers including Tom Hiddleston’s hunter-tracker, Corey Hawkins’ fresh-faced geologist, and Brie Larson’s photographer.

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Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski was brought back to life on Hollywood Boulevard, but this time, he was the one who delivered a eulogy for a friend, and it ended with “Good afternoon, sweet prince,” rather than good night.

At John Goodman’s Walk of Fame ceremony, Jeff Bridges donned “The Dude’s” signature, quirky, knit sweater, and delivered a typically rambling and hilarious rendition of the eulogy that Walter gives before scattering Donny’s ashes in the 1998 Coen Brothers cult classic “The Big Lebowski.”

Bridges asked Goodman to hold his suit and bag for him, and as he drew out “The Dude’s” poncho-like garment, a loud cheer erupted from the crowd when they realized one of cinema’s most iconic slackers was about to be reincarnated in front of them.

“He’s a good actor, he’s a good man, John Goodman,” Bridges began. “He’s one of us, he loves the outdoors and acting. As a showman, he has explored the stages from Los Angeles to New York — we’re talking Broadway here, man — he’s done some weird little movies, too. And he’s lived, like so many men in prior generations have lived their lives. He is a man of his times, a man of our times, and he has become a legend.”

As Bridges delivered his version of the eulogy, Goodman laughed uncontrollably in the background.

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“American Pie” singer Don McLean says he has had no contact with his ex-wife for more than a year and will obey the terms of an order of protection she received in court.

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Former R.E.M. front man Michael Stipe has found a doppelganger in David Letterman.

Both the singer and the late night television icon have been sporting bushy beards lately. Letterman showed his off in a cover shot for this month’s New York magazine. Stipe apparently came across a sign promoting the issue and posted a selfie alongside it on his Instagram account.

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