John Lithgow
Acting
Biography
John Arthur Lithgow (born October 19, 1945) is an American actor. He studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his diverse work on stage and screen. He has received numerous accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Grammy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award. Lithgow won two Tony Awards, his first for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut in The Changing Room (1972) and his second for Best Actor in a Musical for the musical Sweet Smell of Success (2002). He was Tony-nominated for Requiem for a Heavyweight (1985), M. Butterfly (1988), and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005). He has acted in the plays The Columnist (2012), A Delicate Balance (2014), and Hillary and Clinton (2019). He portrayed Roald Dahl in the play Giant on the West End, for which he was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor. He starred as Dick Solomon in the television sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001), winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. He received further Primetime Emmy Awards for his performances as Arthur Mitchell in the drama Dexter (2009) and as Winston Churchill in the Netflix drama The Crown (2016–2019). He also starred in HBO's Perry Mason (2020) and FX's The Old Man (2022). On film, he has received two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor nominations for his roles as a transsexual ex-football player in The World According to Garp (1982) and a lonely banker in Terms of Endearment (1983). He also acted in All That Jazz (1979), Blow Out (1981), Footloose (1984), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), A Civil Action (1998), Shrek (2001), Kinsey (2004), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Love Is Strange (2014), Interstellar (2014), Late Night (2019), Bombshell (2019), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and Conclave (2024).
Born: October 19, 1945
Place of Birth: Rochester, New York, USA
Known For
Broadway: The Next Generation
A look at the past, present and future of the Great White Way.
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
The Duncan family is beside itself when son Sylvester turns himself into a rock to escape the jaws of a hungry lion.
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
When Marvin Hamlisch passed away in August 2012 the worlds of music, theatre and cinema lost a talent the likes of which we may never see again. Seemingly destined for greatness, Hamlisch was accepted into New York’s Juilliard School as a 6-year-old musical prodigy and rapidly developed into a phenomenon. With instantly classic hits ‘The Way We Were’ and ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and scores for Hollywood films such as The Swimmer, The Sting and Sophie’s Choice and the Broadway juggernaut A Chorus Line; Hamlisch became the go-to composer for film and Broadway producers and a prominent presence on the international Concert Hall circuit. His streak was staggering, vast, unprecedented and glorious, by the age of 31 Hamlisch had won 4 Grammys, an Emmy, 3 Oscars, a Tony and a Pulitzer prize: success that burned so bright, it proved impossible to match.
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection
In "All Through the Night," perhaps the single most famous story from the original comic book series, a psychotic killer dressed as Santa escapes Christmas Eve and terrorizes a middle-class home where murder has already made a holiday appearance: a homicidal wife plunges a fireplace poker into her husband's skull. (It was also adapted in the 1972 British anthology movie Tales from the Crypt). Kirk Douglas stars as a blood-and-thunder World War I general who discovers his son is a coward in the grim "Yellow," the most dramatically acute of the trio. Digital magic morphs Humphrey Bogart into "You, Murderer," a high-concept, rather gimmicky tale of murder, double crosses, and poetic justice as seen through a dead man's eyes. Isabella Rossellini (daughter of Bogie's Casablanca costar Ingrid Bergman) and John Lithgow costar as plotting lovers.
On Broadway
An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Twenty Good Years
Twenty Good Years is a short-lived American sitcom created by Michael J. Leeson and Marsh McCall, and starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as mismatched friends—impulsive surgeon John Mason and widower judge Jeffrey Pyne—who decide to live life to the fullest after realizing they only have 'twenty good years' left. Thirteen episodes were produced, with an NBC premiere of October 11, 2006; however, due to low ratings, it was canceled after only four episodes and replaced by a block of specials. The unaired episodes have never been released, and only the pilot can be found online.
Dexter: Resurrection
Dexter Morgan awakens from a coma to find Harrison gone without a trace. Realizing the weight of what he put his son through, Dexter sets out for New York City, determined to find him and make things right. But closure won't come easy. When Miami Metro's Angel Batista arrives with questions, Dexter realizes his past is catching up to him fast. As father and son navigate their own darkness in the city that never sleeps, they soon find themselves deeper than they ever imagined - and that the only way out is together.
Filmography
as Jimpa
as Arthur Mitchell
as Dave Crealy
as Self
as Bolinar (voice)
as Tremblay
as Mayor Gould
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
as Richard Hobbes
as Self - Guest
as Harold Harper
as Tom the Studio Chairman
as Arthur Mitchell
as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
as Self
as Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
as Self - Special Guest
as Roger Ailes
as Self
as Self
as President Donald J. Trump
as Ed Hemsler
as Jud Crandall
as Walter Lovell
as Jud Crandall
as Self - Guest
as Fergus
as Don
as Self
as Doug Strutt
as Larry Henderson
as Himself
as Senator Ronald Sperling
as Winston Churchill
as Lamar Blackburn
as Self - Performer
as Self - Guest
as Voice of Gore Vidal
as Self
as Self - Guest
as Self - Narrator (voice)
as Donald
as James Roosevelt (voice)
as Maurice (voice)
as Ben
as Reverend Alfred Dowd
as Self
as Ol' Gregory Timms
as The White Rabbit (voice)
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
as Oliver
as Self
as Glen Motch
as Self
as Self
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
as Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice)
as Charles Rodman
as Self
as Jack Brady
as Narrator
as Self - Guest
as Edgar West
as Narrator
as Self
as Jerry Harris
as John Mason
as John Lithgow
as Arthur Mitchell
as Self
as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
as Jerry Whittaker
as Blake Edwards
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
as Self
as Bud Brumder
as Self
as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
as Jean-Claude (voice)
as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
as Narrator
as Self
as Dr. Oscar Charles
as Judge Walter J. Skinner
as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
as Sergeant Larry Skovik
as Self
as Self - Guest
as Narrator (voice)
as Thomas Livingston
as John Lithgow
as Self
as Self / Uriah Oblinger (voice)
as Self
as Narrator
as Self - Guest
as Dick Solomon
as Senator Conyers
as Laird Riordan
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
as Dr. Rene Harlinger
as Professor Wilkinson
as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
as Franklin Delano Roosevelt
as Self - Host
as Alexander (voice)
as Paul Harrington
as Smith Keen
as Madman Martinez (voice)
as Self - Guest
as Phillip Mills
as Qualen
as Narrator
as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
as Leslie Huben
as Earl Talbott Blake
as Artie Margulies
as John Walters (archive footage)
as Bruce Derringer
as Robert Carter
as Self
as Gus (voice)
as John Lithgow (voice)
as Ben Cluett
as Dr. Oscar Charles
as Dave
as Mark Lambert
as George Henderson
as Narrator
as John Mathewson
as Maj. Kendall Laird
as Oliver Thompson
as B.Z.
as John Walters
as Dr. Walter Curnow
as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
as Lord John Whorfin
as Rev. Shaw Moore
as Goldilocks' Father
as Himself
as Joe Huxley
as Sam Burns
as Valentine
as Goldilocks' Father
as Roberta Muldoon
as Mr. Brunner
as Burke
as Herbie Morse
as Wally
as Clarence
as Lucas Sergeant
as Paul Philips
as Sam Sebastian
as Capt. Thorne
as Robert Lasalle
as Self - Host
as Narrator
as Paul Unger
as Capt. Thorne
as Self - Presenter
as Self
as Paul Unger
as Major Kendall Laird
as Laird Riordan
as Self - Nominee
as Self - Presenter
as Self - Winner
as Albus Dumbledore