John Mahoney

John Mahoney will return to the Goodman for the first time in 15 years to join the cast of Mamet’s most recent play, Romance.  Mahoney—best known for his work on the television show Frasier and last seen at the Goodman in the critically acclaimed 1989/90 Mamet adaptation of Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya—will portray the Judge in this courtroom farce directed by Pam MacKinnon. The performances will begin March 17, 2006 in the Owen.

The British-born actor is best known for playing Martin Crane in the popular TV show Frasier, as Kelsey Grammer's character, Dr. Frasier Crane's, retired policeman father.

Mahoney was born in Blackpool, England and moved to the United States as a young man. He studied at Quincy University in Illinois before joining the United States Army and becoming a U.S. citizen. He settled in Chicago and taught English at several colleges. He was an editor for a medical journal publisher through much of the 1970's.

Disillusioned with his career, Mahoney later said he realized that as he was approaching middle age, he was coming to terms with his future which made him very depressed. Ready for a change, Mahoney took acting classes at St. Nicholas Theater and after a stage production in 1977 actor John Malkovich encouraged him to join Steppenwolf Theater. He did and was very successful. He made his film debut in 1980, and has played supporting roles in such films as Suspect and Moonstruck (both 1987), Frantic (1988), Say Anything... (1989), Barton Fink (1991), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), The American President (1995), and Primal Fear (1996). He also provided the voices for several characters in the animated film Antz (1998).

He appeared in Frasier from its inception in 1993, until the final episode in 2004, and received Emmy and Golden Globe award nominations for this role.

Romance, will be part of The Goodman Theatre’s David Mamet Festival which showcases the astonishing body of work of one of America’s (and Chicago’s) greatest playwrights – from the corrosively profane to the gently lyrical, from early classics such as 1972’s The Duck Variations to his most recent hit farce, Romance.  A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, as well as a renowned filmmaker and theater director, Mamet has a long and fruitful collaboration with the Goodman that includes more than one dozen works, beginning in 1975 with the world premiere of American Buffalo.  Tickets for all productions in the Festival go on sale January 16, 2006.