John Goodman stunned fans this week after appearing in a new Instagram photo looking dramatically different from his days as one of television’s most familiar sitcom stars.
The actor became a household name during the original run of Roseanne, which aired from 1988 to 1997, earning widespread affection for his warm, nuanced portrayal of Dan Conner, the working-class family patriarch married to Roseanne Barr’s title character.
At the peak of his fame, Goodman’s size was often folded into the show’s humor and storylines. He later shared that his weight had reached 400lb at his heaviest.
Goodman began transforming his health after quitting alcohol in 2007, setting off a long-running weight-loss journey that, by three years ago, had already seen him drop more than 200lb.
That transformation appeared to have continued when Wizards of Waverly Place actor David DeLuise ran into Goodman at a supermarket this week.
DeLuise, the son of comic actors Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur — both known for their work in Mel Brooks films — shared an enthusiastic Instagram selfie with Goodman, prompting fans to react with surprise over the beloved TV star’s noticeably slimmed-down appearance.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Goodman’s representative for comment.
Roseanne star John Goodman surprised fans with his changed appearance after posing for an Instagram selfie with David DeLuise this week
‘He was my childhood !!’ DeLuise gushed on Instagram with a heart emoji. ‘Legend ! I love that I get to say that to someone 😉 if you know you know.’
Goodman began to lose weight after he entered rehab in 2007, putting an end to decades of alcoholism during which he would drink on set.
‘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,’ he told the Guardian five years later. ‘It was time to stop.’
By 2010, he had lost 100lb, having excised sugar from his diet and begun working out six days a week with Serena Williams’ trainer Mackie Shilstone, per People.
Being heavier, Goodman said, had been ‘a waste. It takes a lot of creative energy to sit on your a** and figure out what you’re going to eat next.’
Shilstone observed that the Big Lebowski star ‘remembers what it feels like to be extremely heavy and it’s something he doesn’t want again.’
The trainer-to-the-stars placed Goodman on a ‘Mediterranean-style eating plan’ and, where exercise was concerned, had him take a daily 10,000 to 12,000 steps with the assistance of a treadmill and an elliptical, he told the New York Post.
Goodman attributed his trimmer frame to ‘portion control,’ a radical departure from his past habit of ‘just shoving everything into my mouth,’ in AARP magazine.
Clockwise from bottom right, Goodman, Roseanne Barr, Michael Fishman, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson and Laurie Metcalf on the original run of Roseanne
His portly figure was the subject of frequent jokes and occasional plot points and he subsequently revealed that at his largest he weighed 400lb
DeLuise, whose parents Dom Deluise and Carol Arthur were comic actors famed for their work in Mel Brooks’s films, has gushed of Goodman: ‘He was my childhood!’
After Goodman gave up drinking in 2007, he began further improving his health with a weight-loss journey that by three years ago had seen him shed more than 200lb. Above, in July 2025
‘But I don’t want to be an example to anybody when the weight comes thundering back on – when I start eating Crisco out of the can with a spoon and a side of confectioner’s sugar,’ the Argo actor added wryly.
He was able to avoid that eventuality so successfully that by 2023, Goodman announced he had rid himself of a staggering 200lb.
At that stage, his workouts consisted largely of such low-intensity activities as walking his dogs, inasmuch as the COVID-19 pandemic had caused his previous boxing regimen to lapse ‘because I’m lazy,’ he told Rolling Stone.
‘I haven’t been exercising, but I’m going to start a routine again this summer where I can get some stuff done. I’ve just let everything go just because I haven’t had the energy because of the jobs,’ the actor explained.
Goodman now has a string of projects in various states of completion, including episodes of the podcast drama Hindsight: The Day Before, on which he plays Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Supreme Court Justice behind the famous line that ‘free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.’
His upcoming projects include the film The Hollywood Hitman, in which he plays himself, and the horror movie Skeletons, starring Brie Larson and Willa Fitzgerald.
By October of this year, moviegoers in America will be able to see Goodman alongside Tom Cruise and Riz Ahmed in Digger, the oil industry satire by Birdman and The Revenant director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
