John Lithgow
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).
Acting (134 movies)
Shrek
2001
Footloose
1984
Sharper
2023
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
2004
Confessions of a Shopaholic
2009
2010
1984
Obsession
1976
The Manhattan Project
1986
Terms of Endearment
1983
Kinsey
2004
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1984
The World According to Garp
1982
Blow Out
1981
The Day After
1983
The Tuskegee Airmen
1995
Give My Regards to Broadway
2020
Leap Year
2010
The Ghost of Lord Farquaad
2003
Harry and the Hendersons
1987
A Civil Action
1998
Ricochet
1991
Bark, George
2003
The Pelican Brief
1993
Cliffhanger
1993
Santa Claus: The Movie
1985
A Good Man in Africa
1994
Inside 'Interstellar'
2015
Raising Cain
1992
The Big Fix
1978
The Wrong Man
1993
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
2021
Officer Buckle and Gloria
1997
Princess Caraboo
1994
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
2000
All That Jazz
1979
Homegrown
1998
Silent Fall
1994
They All Saw a Cat
2017
Casting By
2012
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
1991
Resting Place
1986
Mesmerized
1985
Love, Cheat & Steal
1993
Hollow Point
1996
Rich Kids
1979
Projections of America
2015
The Campaign
2012
This Is 40
2012
Out Cold
1989
Chez Bob
2022
Car of the Future
2008
The Bubble
2022
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
1972
Redwood Curtain
1995
Interstellar
2014
95 Worlds and Counting
2000
Don Quixote
2000
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
2013
Distant Thunder
1988
Cabrini
2024
Love Is Strange
2014
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
1996
National Theatre Live: The Magistrate
2013
Orange County
2002
Spellbound
2024
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011
Twilight Zone: The Movie
1983
Memphis Belle
1990
The Rule of Jenny Pen
2025
Ivory Hunters
1990
The Homesman
2014
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023
Night of 100 Stars III
1990
Johnny Skidmarks
1998
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow
2024
The Accountant
2016
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn
2009
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
2014
Dreamgirls
2006
Broadway: The Next Generation
2017
Best of Enemies
2015
Shrek Stories
2013
Timms Valley
2013
The Oldest Living Graduate
1980
The Glitter Dome
1984
Jimpa
2025
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
1982
Miss Sloane
2016
Amazing Stories: The Movie II
1990
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
2016
Beatriz at Dinner
2017
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
1984
Daddy's Home 2
2017
Einstein's Big Idea
2005
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified
2002
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
2007
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
2001
The Pulitzer At 100
2017
Pitch Perfect 3
2017
Secret Service
1977
| Title | Year | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Don Quixote | 2000 | Executive Producer |
| Art Happens Here with John Lithgow | 2024 | Executive Producer |
| The Rule of Jenny Pen | 2025 | Executive Producer |