
John Lithgow
Acting
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).
Born: October 19, 1945 · Rochester, New York, USA
Filmography (141)

Harry Potter
2026

Dexter: Resurrection
2025

The Rule of Jenny Pen
2025

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
2025

Spellbound
2024

Conclave
2024

Cabrini
2024

Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023

Killers of the Flower Moon
2023

Sharper
2023

Sherri
2022

The Old Man
2022

The Bubble
2022

Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
2021

Dexter: New Blood
2021

Perry Mason
2020

Stars in the House
2020

Bombshell
2019

The Kelly Clarkson Show
2019

The Tomorrow Man
2019

Pet Sematary
2019

Late Night
2019

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018

James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
2018

Mister Rogers: It's You I Like
2018

The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
2018

Pitch Perfect 3
2017

Daddy's Home 2
2017

Beatriz at Dinner
2017

Trial & Error
2017

Miss Sloane
2016

The Crown
2016

The Accountant
2016

Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
2016

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015

Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
2015

Best of Enemies
2015

Inside 'Interstellar'
2015

The Late Late Show with James Corden
2015

Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
2014

Interstellar
2014

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
2014

The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
2014

Love Is Strange
2014

The Homesman
2014

Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
2013

Shrek Stories
2013

This Is 40
2012

Casting By
2012

The Campaign
2012

Finding Your Roots
2012

Shrek: Once Upon a Time
2011

New Year's Eve
2011

Prohibition
2011

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011

Conan
2010

Leap Year
2010

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009

Confessions of a Shopaholic
2009

ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
2007

The Graham Norton Show
2007

Dreamgirls
2006

Twenty Good Years
2006

30 Rock
2006

Dexter
2006

The One Show
2006

The Colbert Report
2005

Einstein's Big Idea
2005

How I Met Your Mother
2005

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
2004

Kinsey
2004

The Ghost of Lord Farquaad
2003

Jimmy Kimmel Live!
2003

Live from E!
2002

Orange County
2002

Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
2001

Shrek
2001

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
2000

Don Quixote
2000

The Early Show
1999

A Civil Action
1998

Homegrown
1998

Johnny Skidmarks
1998

The View
1997

Hollow Point
1996

Cosby
1996

The West
1996

The Daily Show
1996

The Rosie O'Donnell Show
1996

3rd Rock from the Sun
1996

The Tuskegee Airmen
1995

Silent Fall
1994

Princess Caraboo
1994

A Good Man in Africa
1994

World War II: When Lions Roared
1994

Love, Cheat & Steal
1993

The Pelican Brief
1993

Frasier
1993

Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993

The Wrong Man
1993

Cliffhanger
1993

Tales from the Crypt - Uncut
1992

Raising Cain
1992

At Play in the Fields of the Lord
1991

Ricochet
1991

Memphis Belle
1990

Ivory Hunters
1990

The Simpsons
1989

Tales from the Crypt
1989

Out Cold
1989

Distant Thunder
1988

Harry and the Hendersons
1987

The Manhattan Project
1986

Resting Place
1986

Mesmerized
1985

Santa Claus: The Movie
1985

Amazing Stories
1985

2010
1984

The Glitter Dome
1984

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1984

Footloose
1984

The Day After
1983

Terms of Endearment
1983

Twilight Zone: The Movie
1983

Faerie Tale Theatre
1982

The World According to Garp
1982

Blow Out
1981

All That Jazz
1979

Rich Kids
1979

The Big Fix
1978

Obsession
1976

Saturday Night Live
1975

NOVA
1974

Great Performances
1971

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962

The Oscars
1953

Today
1952

Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951

Golden Globe Awards
1944
