Walton Goggins was born in Alabama, raised in Georgia, and grew up as a child of divorce. As such, he grew up in a nontraditional household full of colorful women who sound like characters from one of his TV shows. Goggins told Vulture (via Slate) his grandmother was an actress in the 1930s, then a nurse, and her husband was buddies with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “I was mostly raised by extraordinary, highly dysfunctional, crazy Southern women,” Goggins said. “I had a front row seat to the real ‘Steel Magnolias.'”
Those steel magnolias included an aunt who worked as a publicist for B.B. King, Wolfman Jack, and Phyllis Diller. Stories and visitors were the entertainment of choice in Goggins’ childhood. Another aunt did dinner theater, and Goggins got to hang out with her backstage from a young age, which gave him the acting bug. Being raised by women gave him a communication bug, overall.
“Most of the men that I am attracted to, that are friends of mine, are a balance of masculinity and femininity,” Goggins told The Sydney Morning Herald. “I was raised by women. So, for me, being open and being a good listener or, not being withdrawn emotionally, that’s never been my experience. I’ve been this way since I was born, whether it’s nature [or] it’s nurture. This is just kind of how I live my life.”
