John Lithgow
Acting
Born: October 19, 1945 (age 80) · Rochester, New York, USA
Highest Rated
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 transgender 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).
Known for
Interstellar
2014
Shrek
2001
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011
The Simpsons
1989
The Accountant
2016
How I Met Your Mother
2005
Dexter
2006
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023
Conclave
2024
Pitch Perfect 3
2017
Pet Sematary
2019
Bombshell
2019
Photos (9)
Movies (114)
Interstellar
Donald
Shrek
Lord Farquaad (voice)
Killers of the Flower Moon
Prosecutor Peter Leaward
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Charles Rodman
The Accountant
Lamar Blackburn
Conclave
Tremblay
Cliffhanger
Qualen
Footloose
Rev. Shaw Moore
Pet Sematary
Jud Crandall
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Edgar West
Spellbound
Bolinar (voice)
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Valentine
Bombshell
Roger Ailes
The Pelican Brief
Smith Keen
Daddy's Home 2
Don
Miss Sloane
Senator Ronald Sperling
Dreamgirls
Jerry Harris
Pitch Perfect 3
Fergus
2010
Dr. Walter Curnow
Blow Out
Burke
Leap Year
Jack Brady
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Lord John Whorfin
This Is 40
Oliver
Harry and the Hendersons
George Henderson
Sharper
Richard Hobbes
New Year's Eve
Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
Terms of Endearment
Sam Burns
The Homesman
Reverend Alfred Dowd
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
Jean-Claude (voice)
The Day After
Joe Huxley
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Dave Crealy
Ricochet
Earl Talbott Blake
A Civil Action
Judge Walter J. Skinner
Kinsey
Alfred Seguine Kinsey
The Bubble
Tom the Studio Chairman
Orange County
Bud Brumder
The Campaign
Glen Motch
All That Jazz
Lucas Sergeant
Late Night
Walter Lovell
Shrek 3-D
Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
The World According to Garp
Roberta Muldoon
Memphis Belle
Bruce Derringer
The Manhattan Project
John Mathewson
Raising Cain
Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
Jimpa
Jimpa
Cabrini
Mayor Gould
Santa Claus: The Movie
B.Z.
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special
(archive footage)
Obsession
Robert Lasalle
The Tuskegee Airmen
Senator Conyers
Princess Caraboo
Professor Wilkinson
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
Philip Drummond
Distant Thunder
Mark Lambert
Resting Place
Maj. Kendall Laird
Beatriz at Dinner
Doug Strutt
Love Is Strange
Ben
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
Blake Edwards
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
Leslie Huben
Einstein's Big Idea
Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
Silent Fall
Dr. Rene Harlinger
Best of Enemies
Voice of Gore Vidal
Homegrown
Malcolm / Robert Stockman
A Good Man in Africa
Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
Out Cold
Dave
Johnny Skidmarks
Sergeant Larry Skovik
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
Redwood Curtain
Laird Riordan
The Tomorrow Man
Ed Hemsler
9 Kisses
Man in Club
The Big Fix
Sam Sebastian
Mesmerized
Oliver Thompson
Love, Cheat & Steal
Paul Harrington
Timms Valley
Ol' Gregory Timms
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos
Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
Don Quixote
Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
Mr. Brunner
Show of Titles
"There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
Rich Kids
Paul Philips
Hollow Point
Thomas Livingston
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
Maurice (voice)
The Glitter Dome
Sgt. Marty Wellborn
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection
Dr. Oscar Charles
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
Shrek Stories
Lord Farquaad (voice)
Big Blonde
Herbie Morse
The Wrong Man
Phillip Mills
The Boys
Artie Margulies
Myths and Hymns
2021
Amazing Stories: The Movie II
John Walters
The Oldest Living Graduate
Clarence
Traveling Man
Ben Cluett
The Country Girl
Paul Unger
Officer Buckle and Gloria
Narrator (voice)
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman
Jud Crandall
Ivory Hunters
Robert Carter
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
John
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
Narrator
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Goldilocks' Father
Car of the Future
Narrator
Chez Bob
2022
Mom, the Wolfman and Me
Wally
Secret Service
Capt. Thorne
Bark, George
2003
The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
God
The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge
Narrator
The Amazing Bone
Narrator
The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale
Alexander (voice)
National Theatre Live: The Magistrate
Posket
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Narrator
The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts
President Donald J. Trump
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn
Narrator
They All Saw a Cat
2017
95 Worlds and Counting
Narrator
John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert
1990
TV Shows (32)
The Simpsons
Gus (voice) · 1 eps
The Simpsons
John Lithgow (voice) · 1 eps
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
1 eps
Dexter
Arthur Mitchell · 12 eps
Frasier
Madman Martinez (voice) · 1 eps
How I Met Your Mother
Jerry Whittaker · 4 eps
NOVA
Narrator · 6 eps
The Colbert Report
1 eps
The Crown
Winston Churchill · 12 eps
Great Performances
Capt. Thorne · 1 eps
30 Rock
John Lithgow · 1 eps
3rd Rock from the Sun
Dick Solomon · 139 eps
Tales from the Crypt
Dr. Oscar Charles · 1 eps
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
1 eps
Perry Mason
Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan · 8 eps
Dexter: Resurrection
Arthur Mitchell · 1 eps
Amazing Stories
John Walters · 1 eps
Dexter: New Blood
Arthur Mitchell · 1 eps
The Old Man
Harold Harper · 15 eps
Faerie Tale Theatre
Goldilocks' Father · 1 eps
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
The White Rabbit (voice) · 13 eps
Cosby
John Lithgow · 1 eps
Trial & Error
Larry Henderson · 13 eps
Prohibition
Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice) · 3 eps
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
James Roosevelt (voice) · 7 eps
DreamWorks 6 Spooky Stories Collection
Ghost of Farquaad (voice) · 1 eps
VH1 Goes Inside
1 eps
Twenty Good Years
John Mason · 13 eps
World War II: When Lions Roared
Franklin Delano Roosevelt · 2 eps
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Paul Unger · 1 eps
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Major Kendall Laird · 1 eps
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Laird Riordan · 1 eps
Self / Appearances (64)
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
Self - Guest · 1 eps
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Self - Guest · 4 eps
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Self - Guest · 3 eps
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Self · 2 eps
The Kelly Clarkson Show
Self · 2 eps
The Daily Show
Self · 1 eps
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Self · 2 eps
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self · 1 eps
The Graham Norton Show
Self · 1 eps
Saturday Night Live
Self - Host · 3 eps
Conan
Self · 2 eps
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Nominee · 3 eps
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Presenter · 1 eps
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Winner · 1 eps
The Late Late Show with James Corden
Self - Guest · 1 eps
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Self - Guest · 1 eps
The View
Self · 8 eps
The View
Self - Guest · 2 eps
Sherri
Self - Guest · 1 eps
Tony Awards
Self - Winner · 1 eps
Tony Awards
Self - Nominee · 2 eps
Tony Awards
Self - Presenter · 7 eps
Tony Awards
Self - Nominee / Performer · 2 eps
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Self - Guest · 4 eps
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
Self · 1 eps
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
Self · 1 eps
The One Show
Self · 1 eps
The Oscars
Self - Presenter · 1 eps
Today
Self · 1 eps
Finding Your Roots
Self · 1 eps
Stars in the House
Self - Special Guest · 1 eps
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
Self - Guest · 1 eps
Live from E!
Self · 1 eps
James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
Self · 2 eps
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
Self
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
Self · 1 eps
The Rosie O'Donnell Show
Self - Guest · 1 eps
Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled
Self · 3 eps
The Early Show
Self · 1 eps
The West
Self · 9 eps
The West
Self / Uriah Oblinger (voice) · 1 eps
American Cinema
Self - Host · 13 eps
Inside 'Interstellar'
Self
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects
Self
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
Self
On Broadway
Self
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified
Self
Casting By
Self
Night of 100 Stars III
Self
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
Self - Performer
The Pulitzer At 100
Self
Shrek: Once Upon a Time
Self
Happy Birthday, Bugs! 50 Looney Years
Self
Stallone on the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger
Self
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
Self
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
Self
2010 : The Odyssey Continues
Himself
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow
Self
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like
Self
Hickory Dickory Doc
Himself
Footloose: A Modern Musical
Self
Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie
Self
Projections of America
Self - Narrator (voice)
Give My Regards to Broadway
Self
