John Goodman Stops Fans in Their Tracks in a New Photo After His 200-Pound Transformation

Aug 12, 2026 by apost team

On August 6, 2026, David DeLuise — best known for playing Jerry Russo on Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place" — was grocery shopping in Los Angeles when he ran into someone he had admired since childhood. He pulled out his phone, took a selfie, and posted it to Instagram with the caption: "He was my childhood!! ❤️ Legend! I love that I get to say that to someone 😉 if you know you know."

The person standing beside him in the cracker aisle was John Goodman. And the post immediately went viral — not primarily because two actors had crossed paths at a grocery store, but because of what people noticed when they looked closely at the photograph.

"Is that John Goodman????" one commenter wrote. "He's unrecognizable." Another added: "He's so much skinnier than I remember seeing him!" A third wrote: "The best back then! He's so skinny!!!"

Goodman, born June 20, 1952, has been one of the most beloved character actors in American television and film for nearly four decades. As Dan Conner on "Roseanne" from 1987 to 1997 — and again on "The Conners" from 2018 — he became one of the most recognizable presences on American screens. He told David Letterman in 2010 that at his heaviest he was "pushing 400 pounds." He has since lost approximately 200 pounds through sobriety, boxing, daily walks, and dietary changes that have unfolded over more than a decade.

Goodman does not have social media accounts of his own. He does not seek out publicity for his health journey. The post collected more than 30,000 likes in 20 hours. The reactions ranged from disbelief to admiration — and occasionally both at once.

The transformation has been years in the making and has never been tied to a single dramatic announcement. Goodman quit drinking in 2007 — the first and, by his own account, most important step. "I just got tired, sick and tired of looking at myself," he told Rolling Stone in 2023. The physical changes followed from there.

His workout routine centered on boxing — not sparring, but hitting the mitts and working the bags for an hour to an hour and a half at a time. "I dug it," he told Rolling Stone. "I never got good enough where I would trust myself to spar because once I get whacked in the face, I don't know if I wouldn't lose it." He supplemented boxing with daily walks and worked with trainer Mackie Shilstone to cut sugar and clean up his diet. By 2010 he had lost approximately 100 pounds. By 2023 the total was approximately 200.

The journey was not linear. He told Letterman in 2010: "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." Sobriety changed that equation permanently.

DeLuise's Instagram post was entirely unplanned. Two actors in a grocery store, one with a phone. The resulting photograph showed a 74-year-old man in a denim long-sleeved button-down, smiling in the cracker aisle, looking like someone his fans needed a moment to place. That moment — the double take, the caption, the comment section full of disbelief — was, in its own way, the clearest evidence yet of how far he has come.

apost.com

Are you a fan of John Goodman? Do you think his health transformation over the years is one of the most inspiring stories in Hollywood? Let us know in the comments and pass this on to your family, friends, and other fans out there!

Follow the link to see the Instagram post https://www.instagram.com/daviddeluise/p/DbtjkkyyzxX/