Henry Goodman

Life and career

He attended the Central Foundation Boys' School.

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.

He portrayed a HYDRA doctor in the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though his name was uncredited in the end credits. He played the character again, now named Dr. List, on the second season of the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron.

His Awards include Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical playing Charles Guiteau in Assassins at the Donmar Warehouse directed by Sam Mendes in 1993), Olivier Award for Best Actor for Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the National Theatre directed by Trevor Nunn in 2000. He has also been nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical (Chicago), London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor (The Merchant of Venice), Theatre Awards UK for Best Performance in a Play (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui).

In 2015 he played the title role in Ben Jonson's Jacobean comedy Volpone at the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Trevor Nunn co-starring Matthew Kelly and Miles Richardson. His last RSC appearance was in 2003 as Richard III.

In 2017 he played Lucian Freud in Looking at Lucian, written by Alan Franks, at the Ustinov Studio at Theatre Royal, Bath.

Of this part, he said "I share an intense hunger to want theatre to be as meaningful as he wanted painting to be."

Goodman is also a respected radio actor, most notably as Leopold Bloom in BBC Radio 4's all-day adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses for 'Bloomsday' in 2012. He has also played author and chemist Primo Levi and a large number of other, often Jewish, characters on Radio 4.

In his autobiography, Antony Sher says Goodman's Shylock is "quite simply the best". He reprised his role for a television film which was released in 2004.

Personal life

One of six children, Goodman is Jewish.