John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow (/ˈlɪθɡoʊ/ LITH-goh; 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).
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Acted in
The Rule of Jenny Pen
2025
as Dave Crealy
Jimpa
2025
as Jimpa
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
2025
as Self
Spellbound
2024
as Bolinar (voice)
Conclave
2024
as Tremblay
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow
2024
as Self
Cabrini
2024
as Mayor Gould
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023
as Self
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled
2023
as Self
Sharper
2023
as Richard Hobbes
Chez Bob
2022
The Old Man
2022
as Harold Harper
The Bubble
2022
as Tom the Studio Chairman
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
2021
as Philip Drummond
Dexter: New Blood
2021
as Arthur Mitchell
Ultra City Smiths
2021
as Ol' Gregory Timms
Show of Titles
2021
as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos
2021
as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
Myths and Hymns
2021
Give My Regards to Broadway
2020
as Self
Perry Mason
2020
as Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
Stars in the House
2020
as Self - Special Guest
Bombshell
2019
as Roger Ailes
On Broadway
2019
as Self
The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts
2019
as President Donald J. Trump
The Tomorrow Man
2019
as Ed Hemsler
Pet Sematary
2019
as Jud Crandall
Late Night
2019
as Walter Lovell
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman
2018
as Jud Crandall
James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
2018
as Self
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like
2018
as Self
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
2018
as Self - Guest
Pitch Perfect 3
2017
as Fergus
Broadway: The Next Generation
2017
as Self
Daddy's Home 2
2017
as Don
The Pulitzer At 100
2017
as Self
Beatriz at Dinner
2017
as Doug Strutt
Trial & Error
2017
as Larry Henderson
Hickory Dickory Doc
2017
as Himself
They All Saw a Cat
2017
Miss Sloane
2016
as Senator Ronald Sperling
The Crown
2016
as Winston Churchill
The Accountant
2016
as Lamar Blackburn
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
2016
as Self - Performer
Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
2016
as Narrator
Best of Enemies
2015
as Self
Lord John
2015
Inside 'Interstellar'
2015
as Self
Projections of America
2015
as Self - Narrator (voice)
9 Kisses
2014
as Man in Club
Interstellar
2014
as Donald
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
2014
as James Roosevelt (voice)
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
2014
as Maurice (voice)
Love Is Strange
2014
as Ben
The Homesman
2014
as Reverend Alfred Dowd
Timms Valley
2013
as Ol' Gregory Timms
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
2013
as Self
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
2013
as The White Rabbit (voice)
Shrek Stories
2013
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
National Theatre Live: The Magistrate
2013
as Posket
This Is 40
2012
as Oliver
Casting By
2012
as Self
The Campaign
2012
as Glen Motch
Finding Your Roots
2012
as Self
Shrek: Once Upon a Time
2011
as Self
New Year's Eve
2011
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
Prohibition
2011
as Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011
as Charles Rodman
Leap Year
2010
as Jack Brady
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn
2009
as Narrator
The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
2009
as God
Confessions of a Shopaholic
2009
as Edgar West
Car of the Future
2008
as Narrator
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
2007
as Self
Dreamgirls
2006
as Jerry Harris
Twenty Good Years
2006
30 Rock
2006
as John Lithgow
Dexter
2006
as Arthur Mitchell
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
2006
as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge
2006
as Narrator
Sangre
2006
as Cafe chef and owner
Einstein's Big Idea
2005
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart
2005
How I Met Your Mother
2005
as Jerry Whittaker
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
2004
as Blake Edwards
Kinsey
2004
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
Dogs and More Dogs
2004
as Narrator
The Ghost of Lord Farquaad
2003
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
Bark, George
2003
Orange County
2002
as Bud Brumder
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified
2002
as Self
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
2001
as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
Shrek
2001
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
2000
as Jean-Claude (voice)
Don Quixote
2000
as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
95 Worlds and Counting
2000
as Narrator
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection
1999
as Dr. Oscar Charles
A Civil Action
1998
as Judge Walter J. Skinner
Homegrown
1998
as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
Johnny Skidmarks
1998
as Sergeant Larry Skovik
Officer Buckle and Gloria
1997
as Narrator (voice)
Hollow Point
1996
as Thomas Livingston
Cosby
1996
as John Lithgow
The West
1996
as Self
The West
1996
as Self / Uriah Oblinger (voice)
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
1996
as Narrator
3rd Rock from the Sun
1996
as Dick Solomon
The Tuskegee Airmen
1995
as Senator Conyers
My Brother's Keeper
1995
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
American Cinema
1995
as Narrator
Redwood Curtain
1995
as Laird Riordan
Silent Fall
1994
as Dr. Rene Harlinger
Princess Caraboo
1994
as Professor Wilkinson
A Good Man in Africa
1994
as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects
1994
as Self
World War II: When Lions Roared
1994
as Franklin Delano Roosevelt
American Cinema
1994
The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale
1993
as Alexander (voice)
Love, Cheat & Steal
1993
as Paul Harrington
The Pelican Brief
1993
as Smith Keen
Frasier
1993
as Madman Martinez (voice)
The Wrong Man
1993
as Phillip Mills
Cliffhanger
1993
as Eric Qualen
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
1993
as Narrator
Raising Cain
1992
as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
1991
as Leslie Huben
Ricochet
1991
as Earl Talbott Blake
The Boys
1991
Memphis Belle
1990
as Bruce Derringer
Ivory Hunters
1990
as Robert Carter
John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert
1990
Night of 100 Stars III
1990
as Self
The Simpsons
1989
as Gus (voice)
The Simpsons
1989
as John Lithgow (voice)
Traveling Man
1989
as Ben Cluett
Tales from the Crypt
1989
as Dr. Oscar Charles
Out Cold
1989
as Dave
Distant Thunder
1988
as Mark Lambert
Harry and the Hendersons
1987
as George Henderson
The Amazing Bone
1987
as Narrator
Baby Girl Scott
1987
as Neil Scott
The Manhattan Project
1986
as John Mathewson
Resting Place
1986
as Maj. Kendall Laird
Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie
1985
as Self
Mesmerized
1985
as Oliver Thompson
Santa Claus: The Movie
1985
as B.Z.
Amazing Stories
1985
as John Walters
2010
1984
as Dr. Walter Curnow
The Glitter Dome
1984
as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1984
as Lord John Whorfin
Footloose
1984
as Rev. Shaw Moore
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
1984
as Goldilocks' Father
Terms of Endearment
1983
as Sam Burns
The Day After
1983
as Joe Huxley
Twilight Zone: The Movie
1983
as Valentine
Not in Front of the Children
1982
as Richard Carruthers
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982
as Goldilocks' Father
The World According to Garp
1982
as Roberta Muldoon
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
1982
as Mr. Brunner
Blow Out
1981
as Burke
Big Blonde
1980
as Herbie Morse
Mom, the Wolfman and Me
1980
as Wally
The Oldest Living Graduate
1980
as Clarence
All That Jazz
1979
as Lucas Sergeant
Rich Kids
1979
as Paul Philips
The Big Fix
1978
as Sam Sebastian
Secret Service
1977
as Capt. Thorne
Obsession
1976
as Robert Lasalle
NOVA
1974
as Narrator
The Country Girl
1974
as Paul Unger
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
1972
as John
Great Performances
1971
as Capt. Thorne
Tony Awards
1956
as Self - Presenter
Tony Awards
1956
as Self - Nominee & Performer
Tony Awards
1956
as Self - Winner
Tony Awards
1956
as Self - Nominee
Tony Awards
1956
as Self - Nominee/Performer
The Oscars
1953
as Self - Presenter
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Paul Unger
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Major Kendall Laird
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Laird Riordan
Amazing Stories: The Movie II
as John Walters (archive footage)
Untitled Trinity Killer Prequel Show
as Inner Voice of Arthur (voice)
Harry Potter
as Albus Dumbledore