John Lithgow
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1945-10-19 (79 years old)
Place of Birth
Rochester, New York, USA
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).
Known For
Acting
(2025)
The Rule of Jenny Pen
as Dave Crealy
(2025)
Jimpa
as Jimpa
(2024)
Conclave
as Tremblay
(2024)
Spellbound
as Bolinar (voice)
(2024)
Cabrini
as Mayor Gould
(2024)
(2023)
Killers of the Flower Moon
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
(2023)
Sharper
as Richard Hobbes
(2023)
(2022)
The Bubble
as Tom the Studio Chairman
(2022)
(2021)
(2021)
Show of Titles
as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
(2021)
(2021)
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos
as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
(2020)
Give My Regards to Broadway
as Self
(2019)
Pet Sematary
as Jud Crandall
(2019)
Bombshell
as Roger Ailes
(2019)
On Broadway
as Self
(2019)
Late Night
as Walter Lovell
(2019)
The Tomorrow Man
as Ed Hemsler
(2019)
The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts
as President Donald J. Trump
(2018)
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman
as Jud Crandall
(2018)
(2017)
Pitch Perfect 3
as Fergus
(2017)
Daddy's Home 2
as Don
(2017)
(2017)
Beatriz at Dinner
as Doug Strutt
(2017)
The Pulitzer At 100
as Self
(2017)
(2017)
Hickory Dickory Doc
as Himself
(2016)
The Accountant
as Lamar Blackburn
(2016)
Miss Sloane
as Senator Ronald Sperling
(2016)
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
as Self - Performer
(2016)
Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
as Narrator
(2015)
Inside 'Interstellar'
as Self
(2015)
Best of Enemies
as Voice of Gore Vidal
(2015)
Projections of America
as Self - Narrator (voice)
(2015)
(2014)
Interstellar
as Donald
(2014)
The Homesman
as Reverend Alfred Dowd
(2014)
Love Is Strange
as Ben
(2014)
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
as Maurice (voice)
(2013)
(2013)
Shrek Stories
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
(2013)
Timms Valley
as Ol' Gregory Timms
(2013)
(2012)
The Campaign
as Glen Motch
(2012)
This Is 40
as Oliver
(2012)
Casting By
as Self
(2011)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Charles Rodman
(2011)
New Year's Eve
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
(2011)
Shrek: Once Upon a Time
as Self
(2010)
Leap Year
as Jack Brady
(2009)
Confessions of a Shopaholic
as Edgar West
(2009)
(2009)
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn
as Narrator
(2008)
Car of the Future
as Narrator
(2007)
(2006)
Dreamgirls
as Jerry Harris
(2006)
Sangre
as Cafe chef and owner
(2006)
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
(2006)
(2005)
Einstein's Big Idea
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
(2004)
Kinsey
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
(2004)
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
as Blake Edwards
(2004)
Dogs and More Dogs
as Narrator
(2003)
The Ghost of Lord Farquaad
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
(2003)
(2002)
Orange County
as Bud Brumder
(2002)
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified
as Self
(2001)
Shrek
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
(2001)
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
(2000)
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
as Jean-Claude (voice)
(2000)
Don Quixote
as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
(2000)
95 Worlds and Counting
as Narrator
(1999)
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection
as Dr. Oscar Charles
(1998)
A Civil Action
as Judge Walter J. Skinner
(1998)
Homegrown
as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
(1998)
Johnny Skidmarks
as Sergeant Larry Skovik
(1997)
Officer Buckle and Gloria
as Narrator (voice)
(1996)
Hollow Point
as Thomas Livingston
(1996)
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
as Narrator
(1995)
The Tuskegee Airmen
as Senator Conyers
(1995)
My Brother's Keeper
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
(1995)
American Cinema
as Narrator
(1995)
Redwood Curtain
as Laird Riordan
(1995)
Tales from the Crypt: You, Murderer
as Dr. Oscar Charles
(1994)
Silent Fall
as Dr. Rene Harlinger
(1994)
A Good Man in Africa
as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
(1994)
Princess Caraboo
as Professor Wilkinson
(1994)
(1993)
Cliffhanger
as Eric Qualen
(1993)
The Pelican Brief
as Smith Keen
(1993)
The Wrong Man
as Phillip Mills
(1993)
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
as Narrator
(1993)
Love, Cheat & Steal
as Paul Harrington
(1993)
The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale
as Alexander (voice)
(1992)
Raising Cain
as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
(1991)
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
as Leslie Huben
(1991)
Ricochet
as Earl Talbott Blake
(1991)
The Boys
as Artie Margulies
(1990)
Memphis Belle
as Bruce Derringer
(1990)
Ivory Hunters
as Robert Carter
(1990)
Night of 100 Stars III
as Self
(1990)
Amazing Stories: The Movie II
as John Walters (archive footage)
(1990)
(1989)
Traveling Man
as Ben Cluett
(1989)
Out Cold
as Dave
(1988)
Distant Thunder
as Mark Lambert
(1987)
Harry and the Hendersons
as George Henderson
(1987)
The Amazing Bone
as Narrator
(1987)
Baby Girl Scott
as Neil Scott
(1986)
The Manhattan Project
as John Mathewson
(1986)
Resting Place
as Maj. Kendall Laird
(1985)
Santa Claus: The Movie
as B.Z.
(1985)
Mesmerized
as Oliver Thompson
(1985)
(1984)
Footloose
as Rev. Shaw Moore
(1984)
2010
as Dr. Walter Curnow
(1984)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
as Lord John Whorfin
(1984)
The Glitter Dome
as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
(1984)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
as Goldilocks' Father
(1984)
2010 : The Odyssey Continues
as Himself
(1983)
Twilight Zone: The Movie
as Valentine
(1983)
The Day After
as Joe Huxley
(1983)
Terms of Endearment
as Sam Burns
(1982)
The World According to Garp
as Roberta Muldoon
(1982)
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
as Mr. Brunner
(1982)
Not in Front of the Children
as Richard Carruthers
(1981)
Blow Out
as Burke
(1980)
Mom, the Wolfman and Me
as Wally
(1980)
Big Blonde
as Herbie Morse
(1980)
The Oldest Living Graduate
as Clarence
(1979)
Rich Kids
as Paul Philips
(1979)
All That Jazz
as Lucas Sergeant
(1978)
The Big Fix
as Sam Sebastian
(1977)
Secret Service
as Capt. Thorne
(1976)
Obsession
as Robert Lasalle
(1974)
The Country Girl
as Paul Unger
(1972)
Crew
(2025)
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Executive Producer
(2024)
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow
Executive Producer
(2000)
Don Quixote
Executive Producer