John Goodman looked markedly slimmer in a new photo shared Thursday by David DeLuise, after the two unexpectedly crossed paths at a grocery store. The snapshot quickly stood out because the 74-year-old actor, once known to be approaching 400 pounds at his heaviest, appeared almost unrecognizable beside the man who posted it.
DeLuise captioned the image with a burst of fan energy, writing that Goodman was his childhood and calling him a legend, then adding that he loved being able to say that to him. It was the kind of post that lands fast because it is simple and immediate: a familiar face, a sudden reunion, and a visible transformation in a single frame.
That reaction makes sense because Goodman’s weight loss has been public for years. In 2010, he said he had lost more than 100 pounds after cutting sugar from his diet and committing to regular exercise six days a week. He later told News in 2016 that he had “just stopped eating all the time,” describing a pattern in which food became constant and then turned into alcohol-fueled backsliding, with stretches of losing 60 or 70 pounds before returning to old habits.
He has also said the fix was never just a diet. Goodman turned to boxing and daily walks as part of his movement routine, and in 2023 he told The Rolling Stone that he enjoyed hitting the mitts and learning the craft, while making clear he never trusted himself to spar because getting hit in the face could change the way he reacted. That detail matters because it shows the work behind the slimmer appearance in Thursday’s photo: not a single break with the past, but a longer effort to keep old habits from taking over again.
What the new image does not answer is the one number people still want. Goodman once said he was nearing 400 pounds at his peak, but he has never pinned down exactly how much he has lost in total. Thursday’s photo suggests the transformation is still very real, but the larger story remains the same: a long battle against regain, restraint and relapse, now reflected in a grocery-store snapshot that made the internet stop and look twice.
