MY LIFE IN PICTURES

THE EMMY-WINNING ACTOR TRACKS HIS RISE FROM MIDWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER TO SITCOM AND MOVIE STAR

- JULIET LOPEZ and ERIC ANDERSSON

Like Dan Conner, the good-natured dad he played across 17 seasons on ABC sitcoms Roseanne and The Conners, John Goodman was once a high school football jock.

A Modern Stone Age Family Goodman says The Flintstones costar Elizabeth Taylor (center) regaled him and his castmates (Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis and Rosie O'Donnell) from the 1994 film with stories about ex Richard Burton: "It was like, 'Wow!'"

“I wasn’t particularly good, but I could block,” says the 6’2” Missouri native, who played offensive guard and defensive tackle. Goodman hoped he could continue with football at Missouri State University, where he attended college. But an unfortunate combination sacked those dreams: “I got injured,” says Goodman, now 73, “and I didn’t have the grades.”