Goldsmith was born on September 26, 1938, in New York. His mother was a model and his father was a gym teacher. His parents were Jewish. Goldsmith graduated from Boston University in 1958, after which he pursued an acting career.
Career
Jonathan has made over 350 television appearances in his career. Among them was the role of Marvin Palmer in the 1964 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Blonde Bonanza." To advance his acting career, Goldsmith moved to California from New York in 1966. Like many aspiring actors, he found it difficult to gain enough acting work to survive and wound up working various jobs, including driving a garbage truck and working in construction, to help make ends meet. During his early years in film, Goldsmith performed as "Jonathan Lippe", having taken the name of his stepfather at the age of six. He subsequently changed his professional name back to his birth name, later recalling, "It always made me feel bad for my father, who never caused me any grief about it.... As my career grew and my son was born, I changed my name back to my real name, Goldsmith, so my father could enjoy his son's success and have a grandson to carry his name as well." Goldsmith first established himself as an actor in Western films, with 25 such appearances. In the 1976 film The Shootist, Goldsmith played a villain who was shot between the eyes by hero John Wayne, who fired blood capsules from a special pellet gun at pointblank range into Goldsmith's face for seven painful takes. Goldsmith also made guest appearances on 45 television series, including Gunsmoke; Bonanza; Adam-12; Knight Rider; CHiPs; Eight Is Enough; The Rockford Files; Hawaii Five-O; Barnaby Jones; MacGyver; Murder, She Wrote; Charlie's Angels; Petrocelli;Manimal; The Fall Guy; Dynasty; T.J. Hooker; Hardcastle and McCormick; Magnum, P.I.; Knots Landing; and The A-Team, as well as a few made-for-TV movies. His longest run in a television series was on Dallas, in which he appeared 17 times. In the 1980s Goldsmith started network marketing businesses Dri Wash & Guard, and SPRINT which was successful enough to allow him to "retire" from the Hollywood scene; he purchased an estate in the Sierra Mountains. He taught theater at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York from 1999-2004. He moved onto a large sailboat moored in Marina del Rey. As of 2011 he and his wife Barbara are moving to a house in the area of Manchester, Vermont.
Advertising work
Beginning in April 2007 and continuing through 2015, Goldsmith had been featured in a high-profile television ad campaign, promoting Dos Equis beer. The campaign, which transformed Goldsmith into "the most interesting man in the world", has been credited for helping to fuel a 15.4 percent sales increase for the brand in the United States in 2009 and also made him into a very popular meme. Goldsmith landed the Dos Equis gig by auditioning for the role. Auditioners were given the ending line "...and that's how I arm wrestled Fidel Castro" and asked to improvise. Goldsmith began his audition by removing one sock and then improvised for 30 minutes before reaching the concluding line. The character was inspired by his deceased sailing partner and friend Fernando Lamas. On March 9, 2016, Dos Equis announced that it would replace Goldsmith in the role as the "Most Interesting Man in the World", saying that the brand hoped to "reboot in a way that's relevant for today's drinker so the brand doesn't get stale." In September 2016, French actor Augustin Legrand became the new "Most Interesting Man in the World". In June, 2017, he returned to television advertising; he switched to tequila, and does ads for Astral Tequila.
Charity work
In the past, Goldsmith has been an advocate for landmine victim support and has assisted the Morris Animal Foundation in their efforts to prevent and cure cancer in dogs. Goldsmith supported the S.A.B.R.E Foundation, whose mission is to protect and preserve the Siberian tiger. Goldsmith’s other charitable causes are Free Arts for Abused Children, which pairs artists with children in protective custody, and the Stella Link Foundation, a group calling attention to child sex trafficking in Cambodia.
