Lifestyle

WAIT, REALLY?

John Goodman, 74, Appears ‘Unrecognizable’ in Candid New Photo

The prolific actor has starred in dozens of popular films and TV shows, yet many fans said they barely recognized him in the new selfie.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedAug 7, 2026, 2:29 PM EDT

UpdatedAug 7, 2026, 2:39 PM EDT

Updated Aug 7, 2026, 2:39 PM EDTPublished Aug 7, 2026, 2:29 PM EDT

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A new selfie featuring actor John Goodman, 74, prompted fans to declare the beloved star “unrecognizable.”

On Tuesday, Wizards of Waverly Place actor David DeLuise, 54, posted a casual grocery store snap on Instagram. In the photo, he grinned widely at the camera, standing next to Goodman.

The Roseanne and Righteous Gemstones star, who does not have social media accounts of his own, also gave a big smile to the camera.

“He was my childhood!! ❤️” DeLuise wrote in the caption. “Legend! I love that I get to say that to someone ;) if you know you know.”

In just 20 hours, the post became one of DeLuise’s most popular, with over 30,000 likes.

Many commenters echoed DeLuise’s statement.

“John Goodman is a living legend,” one person wrote of the The Big Lebowski star, while another typed, “He is the best!”

But some were surprised by Goodman’s appearance.

“Is that John Goodman????” one person wrote. “He’s unrecognizable.”

“He’s so much skinnier than I remember seeing him!” another person wrote, while a third agreed, “He’s so skinny!”

In 2010, Goodman told David Letterman that at his heaviest, he was “pushing 400 pounds,” and shared that even after successful weight loss efforts, he struggled to keep the weight off.

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“I’d lose 60 pounds every spring, and then I got too fond of the barley corn, and I’d just start missing it too much, and then it would just screw everything up. I’d gain it all back and then some every year,” he said.

Goodman gained back weight before 2014, but The New York Post reported in 2015 that he had undergone another incredible 100-pound weight loss.

His trainer, Mackie Shilstone, said that the transformation was achieved through exercising six times a week and taking over 10,000 steps daily.

Goodman also followed a “Mediterranean-style eating plan” that focuses on fruits and vegetables and limits red meat.

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After years of struggling with alcoholism, Goodman also cut alcohol from his diet 19 years ago.

In 2016, he talked about the motivation behind his weight loss journey with ABC News: “I just got tired, sick and tired of looking at myself. You’re shaving in the mirror, and you don’t want to look at yourself. It gets dangerous.”

Goodman played dad Dan Conner from 1988 to 1997 in the hit ABC sitcom Roseanne opposite Roseanne Barr.

He returned to the role in 2018 for a revival, before the show was cut short after only one season due to Barr’s racist and Islamophobic tweets. Goodman continued his role as Conner in a spinoff titled The Conners from 2018 to 2025.

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The Emmy-winning actor has starred in dozens of award-winning films, television shows, and stage productions, many of which included dramatic transformations into larger-than-life personalities.

From 2019 to 2025, Goodman starred in HBO’s Righteous Gemstones, in which he portrayed Eli Gemstone, the lead pastor of a megachurch and patriarch of a highly dysfunctional family of televangelists.

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Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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