Robert Goody (16 April 1951 – 5 March 2023) was a British actor, librettist, writer and former member of the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

Early life

Goody was born in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, 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.Cottan, Rick
Bob Goody obituary

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, 26 March 2023

Theatre work

Bob Goody trained at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

(1973–1975). He was a founder member of the acclaimed theatre company

Shared Experience Shared Experience is a British theatre company.
Its current joint

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performing the

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

trilogy. He played various characters with the company, including: Aleksandr Torra, the Torbinator and the Turnpike in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

''. In 1987, he toured as Dr. Pinch in ''

The Comedy of Errors ''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play ...

'' and as the Ghost and the Gravedigger in ''Hamlet'' with the

. In 1991 he played the Chief Weasel in

Alan Bennett Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. He has received numerous awards and honours including four BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. In 2005 he received the Socie ...

's adaptation of ''

The Wind in the Willows ''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and get ...

'' for the National Theatre at

The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...

in London. In January and February 2016, he played Lucky opposite Lorcan Cranitch and

Jeff Rawle Jeffrey Alan Rawle (born 20 July 1951) is a British actor from Birmingham, England. He is known for playing Billy in ''Billy Liar (TV series), Billy Liar'' (1973–1974), and for portraying George Dent in the news-gathering sitcom ''Drop the Dea ...

as Vladimir and Estragon and Richard Cordery as Pozzo in

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'' at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre, or simply The Crucible, is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1971. Its name refers to crucible steel, which was developed in Sheffield in 1740 and drove the industrialisation of the city. ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. The production was described by ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'' 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."

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 Luna commonly refers to: * Earth's Moon, named "Luna" in Latin, Spanish and other languages * Luna (goddess) In Sabine and ancient Roman religion and myth, Luna is the divine embodiment of the Moon (Latin ''Lūna'' ). She is often presented as t ...

'' (1983), ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode Serial (literature), serial between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853. The novel has many characters and several subplots, and is told partly by th ...

'' (1985), '' The Kenny Everett Television Show'' (1985), ''

Porterhouse Blue ''Porterhouse Blue'' is a novel written by Tom Sharpe, first published in 1974. A satirical look at Cambridge life and the struggle between tradition and reform, ''Porterhouse Blue'' tells the story of Skullion, the Head Porter of Porterhouse ...

'' (1987), '' Selling Hitler'' (1991), '' Blue Heaven'' (1992), '' The Blackheath Poisonings'' (1992), ''

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery fiction, mystery series, based on the Lovejoy (novel series), novels by John Grant (Lovejoy), John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six ser ...

'' (1993), ''

Screen Two ''Screen Two'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1985 to 1998 (not to be confused with a run of films shown on BBC2 under the billing ''Screen 2'' between April 1977 and March 1978 ...

'' (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 Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...

'' (2003), four episodes of ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...

'' (1989–2004), '' Hotel Babylon'' (2008), '' Crusoe'' (2008), ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

'' (2011), Gustave in '' X Company'' (2015), Squire in '' Cider with Rosie'' (2015) and Sir Ray Ives in '' Queens of Mystery'' (2019).Bob Goody
on the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

His film roles include appearances in ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...

'' (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 ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

'' (1995), '' The Borrowers'' (1997), ''

Lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

'' (1999), ''In the Doghouse'' (2002), '' The Thief Lord'' (2006), '' That Summer Day'' (2006), ''

The Great Ghost Rescue ''The Great Ghost Rescue'' is a children's novel authored by Eva Ibbotson. It was published by Macmillan in 1975 and was Ibbotson's first published novel. The story deals with a ghost called Humphrey the Horrible. A film adaptation of the no ...

'' (2011), '' Late September'' (2012), '' Mr. Turner'' (2014), ''

Peterloo The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Square, Manchester, St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Eighteen people died and 400–700 were injured when the cavalry of the Yeomen charged into a crow ...

'' (2018) and ''

23 Walks ''23 Walks'' is a 2020 British romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Morrison. It stars Alison Steadman, Dave Johns and Graham Cole. It was released on 30 July 2020 in Australia and on 25 September 2020 to cinemas in the Unit ...

'' (2020).

As a writer

While Goody and

Mel Smith Melvyn Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, actor and filmmaker. He worked on the sketch comedy shows ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' and ''Alas Smith and Jones'' with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Smi ...

were working on a two-man show at the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin. The Traverse Th ...

, they teamed up with composer Peter Brewis and together created three

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

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 Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. History The original ''Hampstead Theatre Clu ...

was nominated for an

Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of West End Theatre Aw ...

and was also recorded by the specialist musical theatre label First Night Records. He wrote the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

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 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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 Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

in central London. 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. Goody died from cancer on 5 March 2023, aged 71.

References

External links

*
''The Fashion'' – Deutsche Oper am Rhein – on the ''Opera Chic'' website (3 February 2008)

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