{{Short description|British actor (1951–2023)}} {{EngvarB|date=October 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}} thumb|Goody in 2015 '''Robert Goody''' (16 April 1951 – 5 March 2023) was a British actor, librettist, writer and former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

==Early life== Goody was born in Brighton, East Sussex, the son of Kenneth William Goody (1926–2005), an airline training manager, and his wife, Hilda Jesse, née Parker (1925–2015). He attended Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School followed by Brighton Technical College.<ref name=Obit>Cottan, Rick. [https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/mar/26/bob-goody-obituary Bob Goody obituary], The Guardian, 26 March 2023</ref>

==Theatre work== Bob Goody trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1973–1975).<ref>[https://www.rada.ac.uk/profiles/bob-goody/ Bob Goody], Royal Academy of Dramatic Art website</ref> He was a founder member of the acclaimed theatre company Shared Experience performing the Arabian Nights trilogy. He played various characters with the company, including: Aleksandr Torra, the Torbinator and the Turnpike in ''Hamlet''. In 1987, he toured as Dr. Pinch in ''The Comedy of Errors'' and as the Ghost and the Gravedigger in ''Hamlet'' with the Royal Shakespeare Company.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rscshakespeare.co.uk/hamlet.html |work=The Royal Shakespeare Company |title=The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126082319/http://www.rscshakespeare.co.uk/hamlet.html |archive-date=26 January 2012 |access-date=3 May 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rscshakespeare.co.uk/comedyErrors.html |work=The Royal Shakespeare Company |title=The Comedy of Errors |access-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100719235947/http://www.rscshakespeare.co.uk/comedyErrors.html |archive-date=19 July 2010 |publisher=Macmillan Publishers Limited |url-status=live }}</ref> Goody's performances with the National Theatre of Brent in the early 1980s were noted by contemporaries as influential on emerging comedians and performers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Enfield |first=Harry |date=27 March 2023 |title=Harry Enfield on Bob Goody: ‘I was too frightened to approach him and tell him how he had inspired me’ |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/mar/27/bob-goody-obituary-letter-harry-enfield |url-status=live |website=The Guardian}}</ref> In 1991 he played the Chief Weasel in Alan Bennett's adaptation of ''The Wind in the Willows'' for the National Theatre at The Old Vic in London.<ref name=doollee>{{cite web |url=http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsG/goody-bob.html |title=Bob Goody |work=Doolee.com |year=2003 |access-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023010944/http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsG/goody-bob.html |archive-date=23 October 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In January and February 2016, he played Lucky opposite Lorcan Cranitch and Jeff Rawle as Vladimir and Estragon and Richard Cordery as Pozzo in Samuel Beckett's ''Waiting for Godot'' at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The production was described by ''The Telegraph'' as having a "stark brutality", and added that "Bob Goody's Lucky is also tremendous, with his spidery, Dickensian limbs, yellowing hair and death-mask face, like some ghastly apparition resembling all their future selves."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/waiting-for-godot-sheffield-crucible-review-stark-brutality/ |title=Waiting for Godot, Sheffield Crucible, review: 'stark brutality' |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=9 February 2016 |access-date=3 May 2019 |first=Claire |last=Allfree |publisher=Telegraph Media Group Limited}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/waiting-for-godot-2 |title=Waiting for Godot |work=Sheffield Theatres website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023010705/https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/waiting-for-godot-2 |archive-date=23 October 2017 |access-date=3 May 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Film and television roles== Goody made his first television appearance in ''The Devil's Crown'' (1978) and went on to appear in ''Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson'' (1979), ''Robin's Nest'' (1980), ''Smith and Goody'' (as writer and actor) (1980), ''Luna'' (1983), ''Bleak House'' (1985), ''The Kenny Everett Television Show'' (1985), ''Porterhouse Blue'' (1987), ''Selling Hitler'' (1991), ''Blue Heaven'' (1992), ''The Blackheath Poisonings'' (1992), ''Lovejoy'' (1993), ''Screen Two'' (1993), ''Paul Merton's Life of Comedy'' (1995), ''McCallum'' (1997), Danny the caretaker in seven episodes of ''Crime Traveller'' (1997), ''Lock, Stock...'' (2000), ''Dark Realm'' (2001), ''Doctors'' (2003), four episodes of ''The Bill'' (1989–2004), ''Hotel Babylon'' (2008), ''Crusoe'' (2008), ''EastEnders'' (2011), Gustave in ''X Company'' (2015), Squire in ''Cider with Rosie'' (2015) and Sir Ray Ives in ''Queens of Mystery'' (2019).<ref name=IMDb>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0329586/ Bob Goody] on the Internet Movie Database</ref>

His film roles include appearances in ''Flash Gordon'' (1980), ''Those Glory Glory Days'' (1983), ''The Stone Age'' (1989), ''The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover'' (1989), ''Fire, Ice and Dynamite'' (1990), ''Buskers Odyssey'' (1994), ''The Grotesque'' (1995), ''Treasure Island'' (1995), ''The Borrowers'' (1997), ''Lighthouse'' (1999), ''In the Doghouse'' (2002), ''The Thief Lord'' (2006), ''That Summer Day'' (2006), ''The Great Ghost Rescue'' (2011), ''Late September'' (2012), ''Mr. Turner'' (2014), ''Peterloo'' (2018) and ''23 Walks'' (2020).<ref name=IMDb/>

==As a writer== While Goody and Mel Smith were working on a two-man show at the Traverse Theatre, they teamed up with composer Peter Brewis and together created three black comedy musicals, '''Ave You 'Eard the One About Joey Baker?'', ''Irony in Dorking'' which won a Fringe First Award and ''The Gambler'' whose 1986 revival at the Hampstead Theatre was nominated for an Olivier Award<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.olivierawards.com/about/previous-winners/view/item98521/olivier-winners-1986/ |work=The Olivier Awards for 1986 website |title=Oliver Winners 1986 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401012230/http://www.olivierawards.com/about/previous-winners/view/item98521/Olivier-Winners-1986/ |archive-date=1 April 2012 |access-date=3 May 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> and was also recorded by the specialist musical theatre label First Night Records.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/olivier_awards/view/item98521/Olivier-Winners-1986/ |title=Oliviers: Olivier Winners 1986 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111154052/http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/olivier_awards/view/item98521/Olivier-Winners-1986/ |archive-date=11 January 2012 |work=The Society of London Theatre |date=24 April 2008 |access-date=3 May 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://first-night-records.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=189 |title=''Gambler, The'' – Original London Cast |work=First Night Records |access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref> He wrote the libretto for ''The Fashion'', an opera for Deutsche Oper am Rhein, with music by Giorgio Battistelli. This was performed in the company's 2008 season. He co-wrote the BBC sitcom ''Wilderness Road'' as well as two volumes of performance poetry: ''Mixing With The Sharks'' and ''Life and Death And A Few Other Bits and Pieces''.

Goody played Bill Maddox in the 1996 video game ''Privateer 2: The Darkening''.

==Personal life and death== Bob Goody was 6' 4" tall and lived in Bloomsbury in central London.<ref name=doollee/> He is survived by his wife Gina (nee Donovan), whom he married in 1978, their daughters Gemma, Seonaid and Sophie, grandchildren Zack, Ayah, Constance and Dolores, and his brother Dave Goody.<ref name=Obit/>

Goody died from cancer on 5 March 2023, aged 71.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whittock |first=Jesse |date=2023-03-14 |title=Bob Goody Dies: Classically Trained Actor And Co-Writer Of BBC Comedy 'Wilderness Road' Was 71 |url=https://deadline.com/2023/03/bob-goody-dead-actor-and-writer-of-bbc-drama-wilderness-road-was-71-1235298955/ |access-date=2023-03-22 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0329586}} *[http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/deutsche_oper_am_rhein/ ''The Fashion'' – Deutsche Oper am Rhein – on the ''Opera Chic'' website (3 February 2008)] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20151010041549/http://users.skynet.be/spier/opera%20pages/opera%20dusseldorf.htm ''The Fashion'' on Argo Spier's Opera Critique website] *[http://www.ricordi.it/cms/news-events/events/battistelli-in-dusseldorf ''The Fashion'' on Casa Ricordi website]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goody, Bob}} Category:1951 births Category:2023 deaths Category:Male actors from Brighton Category:20th-century British male actors Category:21st-century British male actors Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:British male television actors Category:British male film actors Category:British male stage actors Category:British male television writers Category:Deaths from cancer in England Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members