Ranking Every John Goodman Character In A Coen Brothers Movie

Along with Frances McDormand and John Turturro, John Goodman is one of the Coen brothers’ closest collaborators. Beginning with the Coens’ second film, the classic 1987 slapstick comedy Raising Arizona, Goodman has played both large and small roles in six of the duo’s movies.

These roles include forgettable ones, like an unnamed newsreel announcer in The Hudsucker Proxy, and memorable ones, like a furious Vietnam War veteran in The Big Lebowski and a seemingly mild-mannered hotel guest who turns out to be a serial killer in Barton Fink.

6 Newsreel Announcer (The Hudsucker Proxy)

Goodman’s smallest role in a Coen brothers movie is his cameo appearance as a newsreel announcer in The Hudsucker Proxy. As the actor’s only Coen brothers role without a proper name, this newsreel announcer is unsurprisingly the least memorable of all the characters he’s played for the duo.

As usual, Goodman knocks every line delivery out of the park, but this role was more of a self-aware wink to long-time Coen fans who expect the actor to appear in their films than a substantial part in its own right.

5 Daniel “Big Dan” Teague (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

Following the structure of Homer’s Odyssey, O Brother, Where Art Thou? has an episodic plot that allows actors to make cameo appearances along the lead trio’s journey, like Holly Hunter as George Clooney’s ex-wife or Michael Badalucco as a hysterically insecure Baby Face Nelson.

Goodman gives an unforgettably hilarious turn as Daniel “Big Dan” Teague, a one-eyed man who corresponds to the cyclops Polyphemus from the source material. Although he initially presents himself as a friendly Bible salesman, Big Dan turns out to be a mugger (and a Klansman) who uses that facade to lure people to a secluded place to rob them. Goodman plays the brutal slapstick of the fight scene brilliantly.

4 Roland Turner (Inside Llewyn Davis)

One of the Coens’ most nuanced and engaging character studies, Inside Llewyn Davis, stars Oscar Isaac as a Dylan-esque folk singer in the early 1960s. Rather than a traditional three-act plot, Inside Llewyn Davis follows a series of vignettes as Llewyn drifts across America, struggling to make a living as a musician. Midway through the movie, Llewyn hits the road in the hopes of hitchhiking to Chicago.

He ends up hitching a ride with beat poet Johnny Five, played by Garrett Hedlund, and jazz musician Roland Turner, played by Goodman. Goodman gives one of his most understated and cerebral performances as Roland, who turns out to be addicted to heroin and dies of an overdose mid-road trip.

3 Gale Snoats (Raising Arizona)

Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter anchor the Coens’ slapstick comedy Raising Arizona as an ex-con and a cop who get married, want to start a family, and find that they can’t conceive or adopt a child. When a local businessman fathers quintuplets and jokingly tells the press that he has more kids than he can handle, the couple decides to kidnap one and raise him as their own.

The movie’s main conflict is their struggle to adapt to parenthood (and avoid the bounty hunter coming after them), but the situation gets even more complicated when two fellow inmates, one of whom is played by Goodman, break out of prison and come to stay. Goodman is hysterical in the movie, both with dry line deliveries like, “We released ourselves on our own recognizance,” and in the more physical comedic beats like throwing Cage through his own bathroom wall during a fight.

2 Charlie Meadows / Karl Mundt (Barton Fink)

Goodman was the perfect casting to play the guest in the hotel room next to Barton’s in Barton Fink, because the actor’s warmth and likability lull the audience into a false sense of security. At first, he just seems to be an intrusive neighbor whose talkative nature keeps Barton from getting any work done, but the character turns out to be much darker than that.

When the movie takes a turn into full-blown horror territory, Barton is visited by a pair of detectives who inform him that “Charlie Meadows” is really Karl Mundt, a serial killer whose M.O. is decapitation. After putting on a convincing mild-mannered facade throughout the first two acts, Goodman is authentically unsettling in the big finale as he confronts Barton in a burning hallway.

1 Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski)

Jeff Bridges is the undeniable star of The Big Lebowski as “The Dude,” a White Russian-drinking stoner and bowling enthusiast whose carefree existence is interrupted by a case of mistaken identity and a band of toe-severing kidnappers. But Goodman offers an endlessly hysterical counterpoint to the Dude’s zen, laidback attitude as a rage-filled hothead who resorts to yelling at some point in every conversation. Inspired by John Milius, Walter Sobchak is a Vietnam War vet who manages to bring up his military experiences during any interaction.

He pulls a gun on a bowler who refuses to admit that his foot inched over the line, smashes up a sports car that he believes belongs to a teenager, and cites a Supreme Court ruling when a coffee shop waitress asks him to keep it down. Goodman nails every scene as Walter – it’s one of the funniest performances ever put on film.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3473 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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