John Lithgow
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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
Credits
Interstellar (2014)
as Donald
Shrek (2001)
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
as Charles Rodman
The Accountant (2016)
as Lamar Blackburn
Conclave (2024)
as Tremblay
Daddy's Home 2 (2017)
as Don
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026)
as Self
Cliffhanger (1993)
as Qualen
2010 (1984)
as Dr. Walter Curnow
Pet Sematary (2019)
as Jud Crandall
New Year's Eve (2011)
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
Spellbound (2024)
as Bolinar (voice)
This Is 40 (2012)
as Oliver
Footloose (1984)
as Rev. Shaw Moore
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
as Valentine
The Pelican Brief (1993)
as Smith Keen
Leap Year (2010)
as Jack Brady
The Campaign (2012)
as Glen Motch
Blow Out (1981)
as Burke
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
as George Henderson
Bombshell (2019)
as Roger Ailes
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
as Fergus
Terms of Endearment (1983)
as Sam Burns
Obsession (1976)
as Robert Lasalle
Miss Sloane (2016)
as Senator Ronald Sperling
Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
as Edgar West
The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025)
as Dave Crealy
Dreamgirls (2006)
as Jerry Harris
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
as Lord John Whorfin
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000)
as Jean-Claude (voice)
Orange County (2002)
as Bud Brumder
Ricochet (1991)
as Earl Talbott Blake
Sharper (2023)
as Richard Hobbes
The Homesman (2014)
as Reverend Alfred Dowd
Late Night (2019)
as Walter Lovell
Raising Cain (1992)
as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
Resting Place (1986)
as Maj. Kendall Laird
Distant Thunder (1988)
as Mark Lambert
The Day After (1983)
as Joe Huxley
All That Jazz (1979)
as Lucas Sergeant
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
as B.Z.
Shrek 3-D (2004)
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
Memphis Belle (1990)
as Bruce Derringer
Jimpa (2026)
as Jimpa
The World According to Garp (1982)
as Roberta Muldoon
The Manhattan Project (1986)
as John Mathewson
Kinsey (2004)
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
A Civil Action (1998)
as Judge Walter J. Skinner
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)
as Senator Conyers
Love, Cheat & Steal (1993)
as Paul Harrington
The Bubble (2022)
as Tom the Studio Chairman
9 Kisses (2014)
as Man in Club
Love Is Strange (2014)
as Ben
Cabrini (2024)
as Mayor Gould
Beatriz at Dinner (2017)
as Doug Strutt
The Glitter Dome (1984)
as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
Hollow Point (1996)
as Thomas Livingston
Shrek: Once Upon a Time (2011)
as Self
Princess Caraboo (1994)
as Professor Wilkinson
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
as Blake Edwards
Show of Titles (2021)
as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
Homegrown (1998)
as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
Inside 'Interstellar' (2015)
as Self
Einstein's Big Idea (2005)
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
Night of 100 Stars III (1990)
as Self
Casting By (2012)
as Self
Broadway: The Next Generation (—)
as Self
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway (2007)
as Self
Redwood Curtain (1995)
as Laird Riordan
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982)
as Mr. Brunner
Silent Fall (1994)
as Dr. Rene Harlinger
Giant (2026)
as Roald Dahl
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)
as Leslie Huben
Johnny Skidmarks (1998)
as Sergeant Larry Skovik
Baby Girl Scott (1987)
as Neil Scott
A Good Man in Africa (1994)
as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
The Tomorrow Man (2019)
as Ed Hemsler
Shrek Stories (2013)
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified (2002)
as Self
The Big Fix (1978)
as Sam Sebastian
Don Quixote (2000)
as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
Mesmerized (1985)
as Oliver Thompson
Out Cold (1989)
as Dave
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic (2023)
as Self
The Boys (1991)
as Artie Margulies
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes (2021)
as Philip Drummond
Rich Kids (1979)
as Paul Philips
Footloose: A Modern Musical (2004)
as Self
Happy Birthday, Bugs! 50 Looney Years (1990)
as Self
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos (2021)
as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
Chez Bob (2022)
Actor
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party (2001)
as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
On Broadway (2019)
as Self
Best of Enemies (2015)
as Voice of Gore Vidal
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest (2014)
as Maurice (voice)
2010 : The Odyssey Continues (1984)
as Himself
Myths and Hymns (2021)
Actor
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972)
as John
My Brother's Keeper (1995)
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
Lord John (2015)
Actor
Amazing Stories: The Movie II (1990)
as John Walters (archive footage)
Not in Front of the Children (1982)
as Richard Carruthers
The Amazing Bone (1987)
as Narrator
Sangre (2006)
as Cafe chef and owner
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects (1994)
as Self
The Pulitzer At 100 (2017)
as Self
Car of the Future (2008)
as Narrator
Traveling Man (1989)
as Ben Cluett
Officer Buckle and Gloria (1997)
as Narrator (voice)
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays (2006)
as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
Stallone on the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger (—)
as Self
Big Blonde (1980)
as Herbie Morse
Hickory Dickory Doc (2017)
as Himself
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC (2016)
as Self - Performer
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection (1999)
as Dr. Oscar Charles
The Wrong Man (1993)
as Phillip Mills
The Country Girl (1974)
as Paul Unger
Timms Valley (2013)
as Ol' Gregory Timms
Ivory Hunters (1990)
as Robert Carter
National Theatre Live: The Magistrate (2013)
as Posket
Bark, George (2003)
Actor
Dogs and More Dogs (2004)
as Narrator
Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie (1985)
as Self
Mom, the Wolfman and Me (1980)
as Wally
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love (2013)
as Self
Secret Service (1977)
as Capt. Thorne
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen (1996)
as Narrator
The Macabre World of Lavender Williams (2009)
as God
Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1984)
as Goldilocks' Father
The Oldest Living Graduate (1980)
as Clarence
The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts (2019)
as President Donald J. Trump
Projections of America (2015)
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like (2018)
as Self
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow (2024)
as Self
Give My Regards to Broadway (2020)
as Self
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1993)
as Narrator
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman (2018)
as Jud Crandall
John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert (1990)
Actor
The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale (1993)
as Alexander (voice)
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn (2009)
as Narrator
95 Worlds and Counting (2000)
as Narrator
Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (2016)
as Narrator
They All Saw a Cat (2017)
Actor
The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge (2006)
as Narrator