Len Goodman shared an eerily accurate premonition about his death. The Dancing With the Stars judge died on Saturday after a battle with bone cancer. He was 78.
In December 2022, Goodman spoke with The Daily Mail following his retirement from DWTS, saying, "My dad had the right idea. He loved gardening and he had a stroke while he was out in the garden. He was 79, so if I go the way of my dad, that'll be next year."
Goodman would have turned 79 on Tuesday. He died just three days short of his birthday on April 25.
In the same interview, he was asked to write his own obituary, and he jokingly replied, "'He was a dance teacher from Dartford who got lucky.' Because that's just about the truth of it."
Goodman retired from DWTS in November 2022 in order to spend more time with his family.
According to the BBC, Goodman was on hospice at his home in Kent, England, and was surrounded by his family at the time of his death on Saturday.
ET spoke with former DWTS host Tom Bergeron about Goodman's life and legacy on the dance competition series. He shared that the former dancer's ballroom experience made contestants and pros value his critique.
"I think that's why his opinion, and no disrespect to Bruno [Tonioli], Carrie Ann [Inaba], Derek [Hough], or Julianne [Hough] back to when she was a judge, but I think they too would agree that it was Len's critique and opinion that everybody valued most," Bergeron told ET.
RELATED CONTENT:
