
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).
Gallery






Known For
Acting History
2025
Jimpa as Jimpa
2025Dexter: Resurrection as Arthur Mitchell
2025The Rule of Jenny Pen as Dave Crealy
2025SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night as Self
2024Spellbound as Bolinar (voice)
2024Conclave as Tremblay
2024Art Happens Here with John Lithgow as Self
2024Cabrini as Mayor Gould
2023Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic as Self
2023Killers of the Flower Moon as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
2023Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled as Self
2023Sharper as Richard Hobbes
2022Chez Bob
2022Sherri as Self - Guest
2022The Old Man as Harold Harper
2022The Bubble as Tom the Studio Chairman
2021Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes as Philip Drummond
2021Dexter: New Blood as Arthur Mitchell
2021Show of Titles as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
2021Emily @ the Edge of Chaos as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
2021Myths and Hymns
2020Give My Regards to Broadway as Self
2020Perry Mason as Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
2020Stars in the House as Self - Special Guest
2019Bombshell as Roger Ailes
2019On Broadway as Self
2019The Kelly Clarkson Show as Self
2019The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts as President Donald J. Trump
2019The Tomorrow Man as Ed Hemsler
2019Pet Sematary as Jud Crandall
2019Late Night as Walter Lovell
2018Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman as Jud Crandall
2018Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction as Self
2018The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer as Self - Guest
2018Mister Rogers: It's You I Like as Self
2017Pitch Perfect 3 as Fergus
2017Broadway: The Next Generation as Self
2017Daddy's Home 2 as Don
2017The Pulitzer At 100 as Self
2017Beatriz at Dinner as Doug Strutt
2017Trial & Error as Larry Henderson
2017Hickory Dickory Doc as Himself
2017They All Saw a Cat
2016Miss Sloane as Senator Ronald Sperling
2016The Crown as Winston Churchill
2016The Accountant as Lamar Blackburn
2016Shakespeare Live! From the RSC as Self - Performer
2016Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as Narrator
2015The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Self - Guest
2015The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Self
2015Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter as Self
2015Best of Enemies as Voice of Gore Vidal
2015Lord John
2015Inside 'Interstellar' as Self
2015Projections of America as Self - Narrator (voice)
2014Variety Studio: Actors on Actors as Self
2014Interstellar as Donald
2014The Roosevelts: An Intimate History as James Roosevelt (voice)
2014The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest as Maurice (voice)
2014Love Is Strange as Ben
2014The Homesman as Reverend Alfred Dowd
2014Late Night with Seth Meyers as Self
2014The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as Self
2013Timms Valley as Ol' Gregory Timms
2013Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love as Self
2013Once Upon a Time in Wonderland as The White Rabbit (voice)
2013Shrek Stories as Lord Farquaad (voice)
2013National Theatre Live: The Magistrate as Posket
2012This Is 40 as Oliver
2012Casting By as Self
2012The Campaign as Glen Motch
2012Finding Your Roots as Self
2011Shrek: Once Upon a Time as Self
2011New Year's Eve as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
2011Prohibition as Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice)
2011Rise of the Planet of the Apes as Charles Rodman
2010Conan as Self
2010Leap Year as Jack Brady
2009Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn as Narrator
2009Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen as Self - Guest
2009The Macabre World of Lavender Williams as God
2009Confessions of a Shopaholic as Edgar West
2008Car of the Future as Narrator
2007ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway as Self
2007The Graham Norton Show as Self
2006Dreamgirls as Jerry Harris
200630 Rock as John Lithgow
2006Twenty Good Years
2006Dexter as Arthur Mitchell
2006The One Show as Self
2006The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
2006The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge as Narrator
2006Sangre as Cafe chef and owner
2005The Colbert Report
2005Einstein's Big Idea as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
2005The Apprentice: Martha Stewart
2005How I Met Your Mother as Jerry Whittaker
2004The Life and Death of Peter Sellers as Blake Edwards
2004The Tony Danza Show as Self
2004Kinsey as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
2004Dogs and More Dogs as Narrator
2003VH1 Goes Inside
2003The Ghost of Lord Farquaad as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
2003DreamWorks 6 Spooky Stories Collection as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
2003Bark, George
2002Live from E! as Self
2002Orange County as Bud Brumder
2002Buckaroo Banzai Declassified as Self
2001Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
2001Shrek as Lord Farquaad (voice)
2000Rugrats in Paris: The Movie as Jean-Claude (voice)
2000Don Quixote as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
200095 Worlds and Counting as Narrator
1999The Early Show as Self
1999Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection as Dr. Oscar Charles
1998A Civil Action as Judge Walter J. Skinner
1998Homegrown as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
1998Johnny Skidmarks as Sergeant Larry Skovik
1997The View as Self
1997The View as Self - Guest
1997Officer Buckle and Gloria as Narrator (voice)
1996Hollow Point as Thomas Livingston
1996Cosby as John Lithgow
1996The West as Self
1996The West as Self / Uriah Oblinger (voice)
1996The Daily Show as Self
1996Special Effects: Anything Can Happen as Narrator
1996The Rosie O'Donnell Show as Self - Guest
19963rd Rock from the Sun as Dick Solomon
1995The Tuskegee Airmen as Senator Conyers
1995Redwood Curtain as Laird Riordan
1995My Brother's Keeper as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
1994Silent Fall as Dr. Rene Harlinger
1994Princess Caraboo as Professor Wilkinson
1994A Good Man in Africa as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
1994Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects as Self
1994World War II: When Lions Roared as Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1994American Cinema as Self - Host
1993The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale as Alexander (voice)
1993Love, Cheat & Steal as Paul Harrington
1993The Pelican Brief as Smith Keen
1993Frasier as Madman Martinez (voice)
1993Late Night with Conan O'Brien as Self - Guest
1993The Wrong Man as Phillip Mills
1993Cliffhanger as Eric Qualen
1993Sylvester and the Magic Pebble as Narrator
1992Tales from the Crypt - Uncut
1992Raising Cain as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
1991At Play in the Fields of the Lord as Leslie Huben
1991Ricochet as Earl Talbott Blake
1991The Boys as Artie Margulies
1990Amazing Stories: The Movie II as John Walters (archive footage)
1990Memphis Belle as Bruce Derringer
1990Ivory Hunters as Robert Carter
1990John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert
1990Night of 100 Stars III as Self
1989The Simpsons as Gus (voice)
1989The Simpsons as John Lithgow (voice)
1989Traveling Man as Ben Cluett
1989Tales from the Crypt as Dr. Oscar Charles
1989Out Cold as Dave
1988Distant Thunder as Mark Lambert
1987Harry and the Hendersons as George Henderson
1987The Amazing Bone as Narrator
1987Baby Girl Scott as Neil Scott
1986The Manhattan Project as John Mathewson
1986Resting Place as Maj. Kendall Laird
1985Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie as Self
1985Mesmerized as Oliver Thompson
1985Santa Claus: The Movie as B.Z.
1985Amazing Stories as John Walters
19842010 as Dr. Walter Curnow
1984The Glitter Dome as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
1984The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension as Lord John Whorfin
1984Footloose as Rev. Shaw Moore
1984Goldilocks and the Three Bears as Goldilocks' Father
19842010 : The Odyssey Continues as Himself
1983The Day After as Joe Huxley
1983Terms of Endearment as Sam Burns
1983Twilight Zone: The Movie as Valentine
1982Not in Front of the Children as Richard Carruthers
1982Faerie Tale Theatre as Goldilocks' Father
1982The World According to Garp as Roberta Muldoon
1982I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can as Mr. Brunner
1981Blow Out as Burke
1980Big Blonde as Herbie Morse
1980Mom, the Wolfman and Me as Wally
1980The Oldest Living Graduate as Clarence
1979All That Jazz as Lucas Sergeant
1979Rich Kids as Paul Philips
1978The Big Fix as Sam Sebastian
1977Secret Service as Capt. Thorne
1976Obsession as Robert Lasalle
1975Saturday Night Live as Self - Host
1974NOVA as Narrator
1974The Country Girl as Paul Unger
1972Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues as John
1971Great Performances as Capt. Thorne
1956Tony Awards as Self - Presenter
1956Tony Awards as Self - Nominee / Performer
1956Tony Awards as Self - Winner
1956Tony Awards as Self - Nominee
1956Tony Awards as Self - Nominee/Performer
1953The Oscars as Self - Presenter
1952Today as Self
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Paul Unger
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Major Kendall Laird
1951Hallmark Hall of Fame as Laird Riordan
1944Golden Globe Awards as Self - Nominee
1944Golden Globe Awards as Self - Presenter
1944Golden Globe Awards as Self - Winner
—Harry Potter as Albus Dumbledore
—Sequestered - Inside Conclave as Self








