[3] He attended the Central Foundation Boys' School[4] and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, in 1969.
[5] In 2003 Goodman guest starred in the ITV series Foyle's War as corrupt American industrialist Howard Paige in “Fifty Ships”, the opening episode of Season 2 of the British TV crime drama set in WWII.
In 2013 he played the role of Sir Humphrey Appleby in the remake of Yes, Prime Minister which was launched on the Gold television channel.
He briefly replaced Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock in The Producers in 2002, but was fired after one month due to creative differences with Mel Brooks.
[17] In 2012 he played the title role in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in Chichester and then in the West End to critical acclaim.
[18][19] In 2015 he played the title role in Ben Jonson's Jacobean comedy Volpone at the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Trevor Nunn and co-starring Matthew Kelly and Miles Richardson.
[citation needed] Goodman is the narrator in the premiere recording by the Hallé Orchestra of the complete stage music Vaughan Williams wrote for the 1909 Cambridge University production of The Wasps by Aristophanes.