Henry Goodman
Encyclopedia
Henry Goodman is a British
theatre
actor. He trained at RADA
in London
alongside Jonathan Pryce
.
In 1988, he played George Green's brother-in-law Cyril in London's Burning
. He played character roles in episodes of the popular UK police drama The Bill
. He won the Olivier award
for Best Actor in 1993 for his role in Stephen Sondheim
's musical Assassins
and in 2000 for his role as Shylock
in The Merchant of Venice
directed by Trevor Nunn
.
Other roles include: Wintergreen in Of Thee I Sing
(London
1996 - concert staging), Billy Flynn in Chicago
(London 1997) and Buddy in Follies
(London 2002). He took over for Nathan Lane
in the Broadway
production of The Producers
in 2001, but his interpretation of Max Bialystock met with the disfavour of the producers of the show and he was replaced by Lane's understudy Brad Oscar
in the role before he could be seen by reviewers.
He played the lead role of Tevye in Lindsay Posner
's 2007 revival of Joseph Stein
's Fiddler on the Roof
, and in 2008 played the lead character in the radio serial The Way We Live Right Now
. He took part in the 2009 London revival of Duet for One
with Juliet Stevenson
.
In the 2009 film, The Damned United, he played the suave Jewish businessman Manny Cussins
, chairman of Leeds United.
In 2010 he played the role of Sir Humphrey Appleby
in the stage version of Yes, Prime Minister
at the Chichester Festival Gielgud Theatre
, in London
's West End
from 17 September 2010.
In the 15th April 2011 issue of Private Eye
Goodman was categorised as a 'Luvvie' for his comments on acting.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
actor. He trained at RADA
Rada
Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
alongside Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
.
In 1988, he played George Green's brother-in-law Cyril in London's Burning
London's Burning
London's Burning was a British television drama programme produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network that focused on the lives of members of the London Fire Brigade, principally those of the Blue Watch at a fictional fire station called Blackwall.It was broadcast between 1986 and...
. He played character roles in episodes of the popular UK police drama The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
. He won the Olivier award
Laurence Olivier Awards
The Laurence Olivier Award is presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre. Named after the renowned British actor Laurence Olivier, they are given for West End shows and other productions staged in London...
for Best Actor in 1993 for his role in Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's musical Assassins
Assassins (musical)
Assassins is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr. It uses the premise of a murderous carnival game to produce a revue-style portrayal of men and women who attempted to assassinate Presidents of the United States...
and in 2000 for his role as Shylock
Shylock
Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.-In the play:In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh...
in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
directed by Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
.
Other roles include: Wintergreen in Of Thee I Sing
Of Thee I Sing
Of Thee I Sing is a musical with a score by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform...
(London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
1996 - concert staging), Billy Flynn in Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
(London 1997) and Buddy in Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
(London 2002). He took over for Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
in the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of The Producers
The Producers (musical)
The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich...
in 2001, but his interpretation of Max Bialystock met with the disfavour of the producers of the show and he was replaced by Lane's understudy Brad Oscar
Brad Oscar
Brad Oscar is an American musical theatre actor known for his Broadway performances in musicals such as The Producers and Jekyll and Hyde. The former garnered him a Tony Award nomination.-Career:...
in the role before he could be seen by reviewers.
He played the lead role of Tevye in Lindsay Posner
Lindsay Posner
Lindsay Posner is an award-winning British theatre director, known for his work in London's West End and at the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, particularly plays by David Mamet.-Career:...
's 2007 revival of Joseph Stein
Joseph Stein
Joseph Stein was an American playwright best known for writing the books for such musicals as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba.-Biography:...
's Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
, and in 2008 played the lead character in the radio serial The Way We Live Right Now
The Way We Live Right Now
The Way We Live Right Now was an adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel The Way We Live Now, re-setting it in the present day. It was written by Jonathan Myerson for the Woman's Hour serial.-Cast:*Henry Goodman - Ghassan Mehmoud...
. He took part in the 2009 London revival of Duet for One
Duet for One
Duet for One is a film adapted from an award-winning British play, a two-hander by Tom Kempinski, about a world-famous concert violinist named Stephanie Anderson who is suddenly struck with multiple sclerosis. It is set in London and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky...
with Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE is an English actor of stage and screen.- Early life :Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth , a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was in the army and was posted to a new place every...
.
In the 2009 film, The Damned United, he played the suave Jewish businessman Manny Cussins
Manny Cussins
Manny Cussins was an English businessman. He made his fortune in the furniture retail business, becoming chairman of Waring & Gillow....
, chairman of Leeds United.
In 2010 he played the role of Sir Humphrey Appleby
Humphrey Appleby
Sir Humphrey Appleby, GCB, KBE, MVO, MA , is a fictional character from the British television series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. He was played by Sir Nigel Hawthorne. In Yes Minister, he is the Permanent Secretary for the Department of Administrative Affairs...
in the stage version of Yes, Prime Minister
Yes Minister
Yes Minister is a satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC Television between 1980–1982 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total there were 38 episodes—of which all but...
at the Chichester Festival Gielgud Theatre
Gielgud Theatre
The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...
, in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
from 17 September 2010.
In the 15th April 2011 issue of Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
Goodman was categorised as a 'Luvvie' for his comments on acting.