The lovably warm John Goodman has held many roles throughout his 46 year acting career, but it wasn’t until his role as the blue-collar family-man Dan Conner on the hit television show Roseanne where John Goodman became a household name. Before becoming one of America’s favorite TV dads, Goodman had experience acting in minor and supporting roles on numerous television and big screen productions, including portraying Gale Snoats in the Coen Brothers comedy classic, Raising Arizona, the first of many collaborations between the three creatives. Goodman has performed in numerous highly praised Coen Brothers films, including Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Inside Llewyn Davis. However, his most memorable performance in a Coen Brothers film is his portrayal of the hilariousVietnam veteran Walter Sobchak in the cult classic The Big Lebowski, which is also arguably the greatest performance of his extensive acting career; a fairly bold statement considering his performances in films such as David Byrne’s True Stories, Pete Docter’s Monsters, Inc., Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, Ben Affleck's Argo, and Dan Trachtenberg’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, just to name a few. It is a surprise coming to the realization that John Goodman has never won an Oscar, let alone been nominated for one, seeing as he has given many incredible performances. His role in The Big Lebowski being overlooked by the Academy, however, is the one that hurts the most. It isn’t hard to imagine what Walter Sobchak’s reaction would be to such a snub.

Supporting characters have an important role in the storytelling process because they help drive the story, but what separates a good supporting character from a great supporting character is their memorability. Looking back at the previous Best Supporting Actor winners at the Oscars, there are many memorable characters among them, including J.K. Simmons as Terence Fletcher in Whiplash, Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, and Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight. The Big Lebowski boasts memorable supporting characters all around, but the most memorable by far is Walter Sobchak. One thing that Sobchak has in common with previous Best Supporting Actor winners is his ability to influence the main character. The chemistry he has with Jeff ‘The Dude’ Lebowski (portrayed by Jeff Bridges) is truly a sight to be seen. Sobchak is the yang to The Dude’s yin, allowing them to play off one another in a truly remarkable fashion. Sobchak is a Vietnam war veteran and The Dude is a middle aged hippie, yet they are inseparable.

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Image via Gramercy

Sobchak’s persistence and unpredictability are two of the few things that compromise the Dude’s patience throughout the entire film. In the film there is a scene that takes place in a diner where a conversation about a severed toe ends as an argument about how Sobchak’s service in the Vietnam War upheld the freedom to have explicit outbursts in a family restaurant, resulting in The Dude walking out in frustration. Without Walter’s aggressively determined and stubborn personality, The Dude would probably not have traveled across Los Angeles on such a fantastically strange odyssey to find a millionaire's missing wife. Without the character of Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski would probably not exist today because it is he who convinces The Dude to go to the big Lebowski to see about getting his soiled rug replaced, but it wasn't just Goodman’s chemistry with co-star Jeff Bridges that made the character so memorable.

John Goodman’s portrayal of Walter Sobchak is always entertaining to watch and with every viewing of The Big Lebowski there is something new to learn about Sobchak, whether it's the way he rolls or how he reads a book. However, it is not just the mannerisms Goodman gives Sobchak that light up every scene he is in, but his ability to convey such a tragic character in a humorous light. Sobchak is a Vietnam veteran and that has clearly had a lasting effect on him, which is seen in his erratic and explosive behavior as well as his unprovoked ramblings about his time in Vietnam. However, Goodman recognizes the absurdity of the character and the situations he is placed in, but does not forget that the character is a tragic one.

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There is a scene in the film where Sobchak is bowling in a league game when one of his opponents, Smokey (portrayed by Jimmie Dale Gilmore) steps over the line while rolling the bowling ball down the lane. One of the most hilarious parts of the scene is when Sobchak hypocritically states, “...this is not ‘Nam, this is bowling! There are rules,” before exploding into a fit of rage and pulling a gun on Smokey. The scene itself is hilarious despite the fact that Goodman is extremely intense during the whole interaction. After the dust settles and the score is finally marked zero, Sobchak puts the gun away and his tone of voice changes from aggressive to remorseful and one can sense the shame and pity in Goodman’s performance, revealing the true tragic nature of Sobchak’s past. Because of moments like this, Goodman is able to make such an erratic and violent character sympathetic to the audience. Goodman breathed life into this pivotal character and gave one of the most entertaining and memorable performances in all of film history, so why wasn’t he nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor?

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The Big Lebowski was released on January 18th 1998 and the deadline for the Academy Awards is December 31st, so the film just missed the 1997 awards season. This meant that the film had to wait an entire year before consideration by the Academy, and 1998 was a very impressive year for film. The competition was tough, for The Big Lebowski had to go up against titans like Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential, not to mention James Cameron’s blockbuster smash Titanic. But that is not the only reason why The Big Lebowski may have been overlooked by the Academy. The film the Coen Brothers released before The Big Lebowski was Fargo, which was nominated for seven Oscars and won two of them. So when word came out that the Coen Brothers were releasing another film, there was a lot of excitement. However, the film was looked at as a bit of a let down; not that The Big Lebowski was bad, the film was just not what many people were expecting. The film had a more fantastical, silly tone than Fargo, which perfectly balanced suspense and humor. But time has been more than generous and kind to this Coen Brothers cult classic, because even though the film and its amazing cast of quirky characters was overlooked by the Academy upon its release, it has become one of the most well known films in the Coen Brothers filmography and a staple in American cinema.

John Goodman gave arguably the best performance of his career and it was tragically dismissed by the Academy, but what’s done is done; no harm no foul.The future has been bright for John Goodman’s portrayal of Walter Sobchak; he is one of the most iconic characters in film history thanks to Goodman’s unhinged, sympathetic performance. And with amazing quotes like, “That rug really tied the room together,” “You want a toe? I can get you toe, Dude. There are ways. You don’t want to know about it, believe me,” and “F*** it, Dude. Let’s go bowling,” it is safe to say that John Goodman’s timeless performance as Walter Sobchak will remain ingrained in American culture for years to come.