About Len Goodman
Leonard Gordon Goodman was an English professional ballroom dancer, dance teacher, and dance competition adjudicator. He appeared as head judge on the British television programme Strictly Come Dancing – in which various celebrities compete for the glitterball trophy – from its beginning in 2004 until 2016, and on the American television programme Dancing with the Stars from 2005 until 2022. He also ran a ballroom dance school in Dartford, Kent. Goodman turned professional, won various competitions, and retired from dancing after winning the British Championships at Blackpool in his late twenties. In October 2011, Goodman appeared on the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he discovered that one of his maternal ancestors was a silk-weaver who died a pauper in the Bethnal Green workhouse. Goodman's great-great-grandfather, Josef/Joseph Sosnowski, came from Poland, where he fought in the anti-tsarist November uprising, for which he was awarded the Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage. Through his son James, Goodman became a grandfather in 2015 when his granddaughter Alice was born; his grandson Jack was born four years later in 2019.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.