Jonathan Goodwin (born 20 February 1980) is a retired

escapologist Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Escapologists (also classified as escape artists) escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, burning buildings, fish-tanks, and oth ...

and daredevil.

Early life

Goodwin was born in

Haverfordwest Haverfordwest (, ; cy, Hwlffordd ) is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire with a population of 14,596 in 2011. It is also a community, being the second most populous community in the county, ...

, Pembrokeshire,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and grew up in

Robeston Wathen Robeston Wathen is a rural village and parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales, west of Narberth, on the former Narberth to Haverfordwest turnpike subsequently designated the A40 which bypassed the village in 2011. Robeston Wathen is in the communi ...

. He attended the since-closed

Tasker Milward Voluntary Controlled School Tasker Milward Voluntary Controlled School was a secondary school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, that taught through the medium of English. It had 750 students in 2016, significantly fewer than in 2009, when there were 1,100. ...

in Haverfordwest.

Career

He first appeared on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

TV programme ''Dirty Tricks'' and has subsequently appeared in TV specials '' The Seven Stupidest Things to Escape From'', and ''Deathwish Live'' as well as Discovery Channel's '' One Way Out'' and ''How Not to Become Shark Bait'' in which he allowed himself to be attacked by a Caribbean reef shark. Goodwin returned to Discovery Channel in 2009 for a ten-part series of ''One Way Out'' which also starred engineer Terry Stroud. He also appeared in an episode of the Channel 4 programme '' Balls of Steel'', with his father helping him with a stunt. On 11 September 2012, it was announced that Goodwin would be appearing in his own series on

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through ...

Watch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached b ...

, entitled ''The Incredible Mr. Goodwin''. The show included a wide variety of stunts, from free climbing skyscrapers to "extreme planking", and started airing in early 2013. It was also shown on UKTV's Dave and on

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary seri ...

beginning in July 2013. On 9 March 2013, Goodwin appeared on ''

The Jonathan Ross Show ''The Jonathan Ross Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on ITV on 3 September 2011 and airs on Saturday evenings following the conclusion of Ross' BBC One chat show, ''Friday Night with Jonat ...

'' and performed the stunt of lying on a single nail and having a

breeze block A concrete masonry unit (CMU) is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. CMUs are some of the most versatile building products available because of the wide variety of appearances that can be achieved using them. Tho ...

broken on his chest with a sledgehammer. In April 2019, he appeared on the 13th series of ''

Britain's Got Talent ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloqui ...

'', and made it to the finals performing "buried alive", the first time this stunt had ever been attempted on a stage. In 2020, he appeared on '' America's Got Talent'', where he finished as a semifinalist.

Injuries

In October 2021, Goodwin was hospitalised following injuries sustained during a stunt rehearsal for '' America's Got Talent: Extreme''. The stunt was supposed to see Goodwin escape a straitjacket while upside-down 30 feet in the air, suspended between two cars. Instead, he became crushed between the cars as they caught fire. Goodwin sustained many injuries, including third-degree burns, a broken spine, a severed

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the sp ...

, and two broken shoulder blades. He shattered both legs and lost a

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

. He was released from hospital in February 2022 but was left paralysed from the waist down, requiring the use of a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

Personal life

Goodwin is divorced and is engaged to actress

Amanda Abbington Amanda Abbington (born Amanda Jane Smith; 28 February 1974) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Miss Mardle in ''Mr Selfridge'' and Mary Watson in '' Sherlock'', the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes sto ...

. They had been social media friends for a decade, but met only after her split from

Martin Freeman Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Freeman's most not ...

. Goodwin proposed marriage within 30 minutes of their first meeting, in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodwin, Jonathan 1980 births Living people Escapologists Britain's Got Talent contestants British stunt performers People from Haverfordwest America's Got Talent contestants