John Lithgow
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- October 19, 1945
- Birthplace
- Rochester, New York, USA
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). Description above from the Wikipedia article John Lithgow, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography
Broadway: The Next Generation TBA
as Self
Giant 2026
as Roald Dahl
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic 2026
as Self
Jimpa 2026
as Jimpa
The Rule of Jenny Pen 2025
as Dave Crealy, Executive Producer
Spellbound 2024
as Bolinar (voice)
Conclave 2024
as Tremblay
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow 2024
as Self, Executive Producer
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
Sharper 2023
as Richard Hobbes
Chez Bob 2022
Actor
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
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
Actor
Give My Regards to Broadway 2020
as Self
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
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like 2018
as Self
Pitch Perfect 3 2017
as Fergus
Daddy's Home 2 2017
as Don
The Pulitzer At 100 2017
as Self
Beatriz at Dinner 2017
as Doug Strutt
Hickory Dickory Doc 2017
as Himself
They All Saw a Cat 2017
Actor
Miss Sloane 2016
as Senator Ronald Sperling
The Accountant 2016
as Lamar Blackburn
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC 2016
as Self - Performer
- Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 2016
as Narrator
Best of Enemies 2015
as Voice of Gore Vidal
- Lord John
Lord John 2015
Actor
Inside 'Interstellar' 2015
as Self
Projections of America 2015
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Interstellar 2014
as Donald
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
9 Kisses 2014
as Man in Club
Timms Valley 2013
as Ol' Gregory Timms
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love 2013
as Self
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
Shrek: Once Upon a Time 2011
as Self
New Year's Eve 2011
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
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
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
Sangre 2006
as Cafe chef and owner
Einstein's Big Idea 2005
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers 2004
as Blake Edwards
Footloose: A Modern Musical 2004
as Self, Thanks
Kinsey 2004
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
Shrek 3-D 2004
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
- Dogs and More Dogs
Dogs and More Dogs 2004
as Narrator
Bark, George 2003
Actor
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, Executive Producer
95 Worlds and Counting 2000
as Narrator
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special 1999
as (archive footage)
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
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen 1996
as Narrator
The Tuskegee Airmen 1995
as Senator Conyers
Redwood Curtain 1995
as Laird Riordan
- My Brother's Keeper
My Brother's Keeper 1995
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
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
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
The Wrong Man 1993
as Phillip Mills
Cliffhanger 1993
as Qualen
Stallone on the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger 1993
as Self
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
as Artie Margulies
Amazing Stories: The Movie II 1990
as John Walters
Memphis Belle 1990
as Bruce Derringer
Ivory Hunters 1990
as Robert Carter
John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert 1990
Actor
Night of 100 Stars III 1990
as Self
Happy Birthday, Bugs! 50 Looney Years 1990
as Self
Traveling Man 1989
as Ben Cluett
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
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.
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
2010 : The Odyssey Continues 1984
as Himself
The Day After 1983
as Joe Huxley
Terms of Endearment 1983
as Sam Burns
Twilight Zone: The Movie 1983
as Valentine
- Not in Front of the Children
Not in Front of the Children 1982
as Richard Carruthers
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
The Country Girl 1974
as Paul Unger
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues 1972
as John
Credits from TMDB.