John Goodman’s Daughter Molly Evangeline Is The Prettiest Woman Alive

Apr 30, 2021

When speaking about legendary character actors, John Goodman’s name should come up. He has accomplished much since his career began in the 1980s. He is credited as an actor in over 160 productions, including films and television series. His work covers a wide variety of genres, making John a versatile and impressive actor.

John is best known for his portrayal of Dan Connor on the hit ABC sitcom “Roseanne.” He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the role in 1993. He has also hosted the show “Saturday Night Live” 13 times, which makes him the third most frequent host of all time. He has collaborated regularly with the Coen brothers on such films as “Barton Fink,” “The Big Lebowski” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou.”

John is also known for voicing a number of characters in children’s films, including the voice of Sully in Disney’s “Monsters Inc.” franchise. He voiced Pacha in “The Emperor’s New Groove” and Eli “Big Daddy” LaBouff in “The Princess and the Frog.” His ability to bring animated characters to life is not overshadowed by his other impressive works. John is truly one of the best actors of all time.

Born and raised in Affton, Missouri, John moved to New York City when he was 23 to pursue a career in acting. Outside of acting, he used to play football and has been a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. He has been married to Annabeth Hartzog since 1989. The couple shares a daughter, Molly Evangeline Goodman, who was born in 1990. Molly also works in the film industry, but behind the scenes as a set dresser. We will get to more about Molly later on in the article. 

John was born in June 1952 to Virginia Roos and Leslie Francis Goodman. His father was a postal worker who died of a heart attack when John was only 2-years-old. His mother worked many jobs to support her family, working as a waitress, retail store clerk and taking in laundry work on the side as well. 

John spoke with The Guardian about his mother and her thoughts on his career choice. He said, “I don’t think she cared just as long as I was happy, And I think the concept was just so foreign to her that it just didn’t register as anything to object to.” 

John went to Afton High School, where he played football and tried his hand at the theater. After high school, he earned a football scholarship to Missouri State University. He studied theater while he was there and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1975.  

He has two siblings, including a brother who is 14 years his senior, and a younger sister that was born six months after his father died. John’s brother did a lot to support his family. He even loaned John the money he needed to move to New York City to pursue a career in acting after college.

In the same interview with The Guardian, he spoke about his life as a struggling actor when he was first starting out in New York. He said, “There were times when I’d run out of money. (One night) I had some beans on the stove. I left them on the stove to simmer and I got locked out of the apartment so they were gone. And that was the last meal for a while.”

In the early part of his career, John found work doing voice-overs and commercials. He was in a popular commercial for Skin Bracer by Mennen, where he had the famous line after being slapped, “Thanks...I needed that!” His comedic timing and acting chops were able to shine through in such a small role; it’s no wonder he went on to have such a successful career.

After that, John found more production work as an actor in off-Broadway productions and dinner theater plays. He made his film debut playing a small role in “Eddie Macon’s Run”  in 1983. He played his first significant role in 1986 in the comedy film “True Stories.” He had a successful run as Papa Finn in the musical “Big River” from 1985 to 1987. The role earned him a Drama Desk nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. 

What really solidified John as a household name was the television series, “Roseanne.” He played the role of the father character, Dan Connor, for the show’s entire run, spanning from 1988 to 1997. The show represented a working-class family in America and received a fantastic reception from the audience. It lasted for nine seasons and was ranked number 35 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. 

John spoke with GQ about his most famous roles and said this about working on the show: “I went in and read with Roseanne for the first time and it was as easy as falling out of bed. We just hit it off. We laughed a lot.” It is lovely to see an onscreen couple get along so naturally from the very beginning.

In 2018, they made a spin-off of the show called “The Connors,” which is still on the air and includes John reprising the role of Dan Connor. The show is similar to the original but continues on without Roseanne Barr after she was fired from the original revival for making controversial comments online.

According to The Guardian, Barr said this about John: "John is the funniest and deepest actor in the world. He has only gotten more open, more sweet, more expansive and giving, on-screen and off, if that were possible, since the Roseanne show." She clearly has a lot of love for him, as the two have remained friends since they first began working together in the 1980s.

John has been in several movies by famous filmmakers the Coen brothers. The first film he appeared in was “Raising Arizona” in 1987. He would then go on to be featured in four more of their films, “Barton Fink” in 1991, then “The Big Lebowski” in 1998, “O Brother, Where Art Thou” in 2000 and “Inside Llewyn Davis” in 2013.  

In 1990, John was featured in the film “Arachnophobia.” He described to GQ that he was playing his character, Delbert McClintock, as a “biology teacher mixed with a gym teacher.” The film is about an invasive species of spiders that are unleashed on a small town and John’s character is tasked with helping stop the spider invasion.   

In 2011, he was featured in the silent film “The Artist,” which won five Academy Awards that year, including Best Picture. John portrayed movie studio chief Al Zimmer in the film and received positive reviews for the performance. The following year, he was featured in another Best Picture winner, “Argo.” The film is a historical drama thriller directed by Ben Affleck.

John currently portrays the role of Eli Gemstone in the HBO comedy, “The Righteous Gemstones” created by Danny McBride. The show began in 2019 and has already been picked up for another season. The show is about a dysfunctional family of televangelists who are led by John’s character, Eli Gemstone. The Gemstone family live very opulent and corrupt lives funded by the congregation of their megachurch. The HBO series has gained positive reviews, scoring 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

John sat down with Esquire and said this about his character’s family on the show: “They do a lot of flimflammery and whatnot, and they're very, very well off at the expense of other people, but they do have faith.” The show is described as a dark comedy, which is in a similar fashion to the rest of McBride’s creations.

John has struggled with alcoholism throughout his life and gave up drinking for good in 2007. In another interview with The Guardian, he spoke about his decision to stop drinking. He said, "It was 30 years of a disease that was taking its toll on everyone around me and it had got to the point where, every time I did it, it was becoming more and more debilitating. It was life or death. It was time to stop." 

He said this about how the drinking affected his work: “I had a problem with it and… I drank for a while and towards the end of that, the lines would not come. And it was like a snowball. It just built up a lack of confidence that I could even learn lines. And I was punishing myself more than anything else.” It takes a lot of courage to speak so honestly about such difficult topics. 

In 2010, John continued to take care of himself by working with a health coach and trying to lose weight. With the help of his health coach, Mackie Shilstone, he was able to lose an impressive 100 pounds. Shilstone has experience working with professional athletes, including tennis player Serena Williams. 

Shilstone spoke to People and said this about John’s weight loss transformation: “He remembers what it feels like to be extremely heavy and it’s something he doesn’t want again. John is very agile. When I see him running I get out of the way! He can be a different type of actor now. He can take on athletic parts.” It is great to see someone so committed to getting healthy and changing their life for the better. 

John met his wife, Hartzog, at a music venue in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1988. He told “Late Night With Seth Meyers” the story of how they started dating. He said, “(When) I met my wife at Tipitina’s, she kind of thought I was a zombie so I had a buddy of mine keep track of her, and we started dating a year later. Yeah, I kind of stalked her, long-distance.” The couple was married in 1989. Their daughter, Molly Evangeline, was born in 1990.

John decided Los Angeles was not the place he wanted to raise his daughter. He told The Guardian, “I’d had it with showbusiness, publicity, tabloid stuff – I’d just had it. I kind of wanted to get her, my daughter, away from that.” So he decided to move his family to New Orleans, Louisiana instead. Their residence is located in the Garden District.

Molly also works in the film industry, but not as an actress. Instead of following in her father’s footsteps, she decided to work behind the scenes and has credits working as a production assistant and worked her way to becoming a set dresser. Molly’s career journey can be tracked through her IMDB page. 

She first started working as a production assistant on the show “New Girl” from 2013 to 2016. She then moved to the art department and became art department production assistant on the show “Aquarius” in 2016. After that, she worked as a property production assistant on the TV series “The Last Tycoon.” In 2018, she became the buyer and set decoration coordinator for the historical series “Strange Angel.” It is so nice to see how Molly’s hard work has paid off as she continues to find creative projects to contribute to. 

All of this experience led her to the work she does now as a set dresser. A set dresser is responsible for arranging the props and objects on a set to make a scene look perfect on camera. Molly is the set dresser for her father’s show “The Connors.” It is so wonderful that father and daughter have a chance to work on the same creative project together.

John told GQ that his daughter’s birth in the early 1990s was the reason for his introduction into voicing animation characters. He said, “I started doing cartoons when my daughter was very young. I did it for her.” It must have been incredible for young Molly to hear her father’s voice on screen. John is clearly a very loving father.

John Goodman is a legendary actor who can hold his own in a lead role but shines brightest as a supporting player, casting his light on his fellow cast members and enhancing their performances.  Do you enjoy John’s films and TV shows? Did you ever watch “Roseanne” when it was popular? We want to know your thoughts, and don’t forget to pass this on to your loved ones.