Goldman was born on July 2, 1968. He grew up in the community of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, near Chicago. His parents divorced in 1974 when he was six and, after spending a brief time in the custody of his mother, Sharon Rufo, he was raised by his father, Fred Goldman, and lived with him and his younger sister, Kim Goldman. Goldman grew up Jewish. He attended high school at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He was a student at Illinois State University for one semester and a pledge to Sigma Nu fraternity before he followed his family to southern California at age 18. When younger, Goldman had worked as a camp counselor and had volunteered to help children with cerebral palsy.
In California
While living in Los Angeles, Goldman took some classes at Pierce College. He learned to surf and enjoyed playing beach volleyball, rollerblading, and nightclubbing. Upon arriving in California, he lived independently from his family and supported himself by working as an employment headhunter and tennis instructor. He then had a string of waiter jobs. He also occasionally worked as a model for Barry Zeldes, owner of Z90049. Not long before his death, he had earned an Emergency Medical Technician's license but decided not to pursue that career. Instead, Goldman told friends that he wanted to open a bar or restaurant in the Brentwood area. He had shared with friends his vision of opening a future restaurant or bar characterized not by a name, but by the ankh, an Egyptian religious symbol of life that matched the tattoo on his shoulder. According to his friend, Jeff Keller, he wanted to learn all facets of the restaurant-bar business, and occasionally worked as a promoter at a Century City dance club called Tripps. For Memorial Day, he participated with a group of event promoters in organizing a party at Renaissance, a club and restaurant on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Goldman had also expressed aspirations to act and to be on a show, and he appeared as a contestant on the short-lived game showStuds in 1992. He had dated Jacqui Bell for nearly two years before she broke off their relationship three months before his death.
Friendship with Nicole Brown
According to a June 15, 1994 Los Angeles Times article published three days after his death, Goldman probably met Brown six weeks before they were killed, when he borrowed her Ferrari. They grew increasingly friendly, accompanying each other to dance clubs, and meeting for coffee and dinner during the month-and-a-half before they died. According to police and friends, their relationship was platonic. According to the article, he had borrowed her car when he met his friend, Craig Clark, for lunch. According to Clark, he told him it was her car, but that he did not say she was his girlfriend. "He said they were friends."
Death
On the evening of Sunday, June 12, 1994, Goldman worked a server shift at Mezzaluna Trattoria, a restaurant at 11750 San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood. Brown called to report that her mother accidentally left her sunglasseson the table when they dined there earlier in the day. Goldman was not their server. After a search turned up the glasses in a street gutter outside the restaurant, Goldman agreed to drop them at her home after work. The Los Angeles Times reported that Goldman “punched out at 9:33 pm and stayed another 15 minutes to have bottled water at the bar.” Before returning the sunglasses, he stopped by his Brentwood apartment at 11663 Gorham Avenue and spoke briefly to his roommate, Mezzaluna's bartender Stewart Tanner, before he left. The two had plans to go out later that evening. Goldman and Brown were stabbed to death on the walkway leading to the condominium at 875 South Bundy Drive. Police found their bodies shortly after midnight. During a reconstruction of the events, the police came to believe he had arrived during or shortly after Nicole's death. Goldman's family believe that Goldman died trying to save Brown from her attacker and that he was the man whom eyewitnesses heard shouting that night. Goldman was murdered a few weeks shy of his 26th birthday. He is buried at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.
Aftermath
for the murders of both Brown and Goldman. In October 1995, after a public trial that lasted nearly nine months, he was acquitted. In a 1997 civil trial, a jury found him liable for the wrongful death of Goldman and awarded the Goldman family millions of dollars. Simpson was subsequently jailed for an unrelated armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel in 2008. The rights to Simpson's book, If I Did It, a first-person account of how he would have committed the murders had he committed them, were awarded to the Goldman family in August 2007. They were granted the proceeds from the book in 2007 as part of the multi-million dollar civil jury award against him they had been trying to collect for over a decade. They own the copyright, media rights, and movie rights. They also acquired Simpson's name, likeness, life story, and right of publicity in connection with the book, according to court documents, ensuring he would not be able to profit from the book. After renaming the book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, the Goldman family published it in September 2007 through Beaufort Books.
Foundation
The Goldman family contributed a portion of proceeds from the If I Did It book sales to the newly founded Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice. It provides grants for multiple organizations and programs that provide resources to victims and survivors of violent crimes. One of the largest donors to the foundation is Las Vegas executive Mark Goldman, Fred's first cousin.
Portrayals
Goldman was portrayed by Paul Witten in the TV movieThe O. J. Simpson Story. He was portrayed by Russ Russo in Reenactment of the Century. He will be portrayed by Oliver Walker in Joshua Newton's upcoming film Nicole and O.J..
