Albert Michael Goodman

Albert Goodman was born in Dallas, Texas on May 13, 1950. Like so many great creative minds, he was a rambunctious, trouble-making loudmouth, in the very best way. His brilliant, unique mind took him to Georgetown University and eventually Hollywood, where he worked as a comedy writer for 20th Century Fox, writing for shows like Laverne and Shirley.

But his roots were in Texas, and Albert would return to them and help run his father Mervin Goodman’s television company, Goodman TV, the first of its kind in Dallas. Eventually he would meet his beautiful, loving wife, Maida, and together raise three tremendous children. He is preceded in death by his parents Evyleen and Mervin, his sister Lisa, mother Berna Goodman, and grandmother Birdie Kahn. He is survived by his sister Suzanne, his brother Michael, Barbara Lipshy, his wife Maida, and children Mervin Goodman, Grant Goodman, Adam and Kate Lewis, and grandchildren, Mila and Elliott.

Albert had a much larger extended family in his friendships: the Bar Mitzvah Boys and the Christmas Day Classic crew. Albert was devoted to his lifelong friends, whose dedication and humor meant the world to him, especially this last year.

Creativity beamed out of Albert. There was a light in him he couldn’t contain if he wanted to, and he most certainly didn’t want to, as he spent his entire life striving for artistic expression. Albert considered himself a writer by birth and a photographer by trade, but he was so much more. Books, screenplays, artworks, stand up comedy, musicianship, down to his very being: the way he spoke, his smile, the glimmer in his eyes, behind which was a mind that wouldn’t stop striving for understanding our world.

Albert once wrote of himself that he is “thankful the new digital world affords everyone an opportunity to find an audience for their truths— whether their work be mainstream or marginal, mediocre or magnificent, or all of the above at any given moment— and delighted he has lived long enough to contribute to the mélange.”

ALS is a terrible disease, but there’s solace in knowing what a rich inner life Albert lived, and at the end, he had such an amazing person to keep him company: himself. Please send monetary donations to the Baylor Heart Hospital Plano, and donate a moment of your time to what Albert would have wanted most: for you to go to Amazon and leave a positive review about his brilliant screenplay, The Peach Trees of Parker County.

Services will be held at Temple Emanu El, 8500 Hillcrest Road, Dallas, TX on Friday, September, 2, 2016 at 1:00pm in the Stern Chapel. Online condolences may be made at www.Sparkman-Hillcrest.com.