Len Goodman Biography

Fast Facts

• Won two Carl Allen Awards, a high honor in the world of dance
• Received a Life Achievement Award for his work in dance
• Left school when he was 15 and worked on the docks for ship-building firms as a welder
• Reluctantly discovered his true passion for dance when a doctor prescribed ballroom dancing to help him recover from a foot injury
• Started attending the Court School of Dancing in Welling at the insistence of his friends when he was 14, but at first he was so shy that he found it nerve-racking
• A ballroom dancer, he competed, judged and taught around the world before landing his first television gig on "Strictly Come Dancing․"
• Opened the Goodman Dance Centre, a dance school in Kent that offers lessons in all dance styles for all experience levels
• After leaving his audition for "Strictly Come Dancing," he felt sure it had gone terribly, but two days later he got the call offering him the job
• Wrote an autobiography called "Better Late than Never․"
• Used to accompany his grandfather on his work as a costermonger when he was a young boy, cleaning vegetables and riding in the wheelbarrow full of produce