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 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).
Movies (137)
Giant
2026
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
2026
Jimpa
2026
The Rule of Jenny Pen
2025
Spellbound
2024
Conclave
2024
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow
2024
Cabrini
2024
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023
Sharper
2023
Chez Bob
2022
The Bubble
2022
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
2021
Show of Titles
2021
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos
2021
Myths and Hymns
2021
Give My Regards to Broadway
2020
Bombshell
2019
On Broadway
2019
The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts
2019
The Tomorrow Man
2019
Pet Sematary
2019
Late Night
2019
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman
2018
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like
2018
Pitch Perfect 3
2017
Daddy's Home 2
2017
The Pulitzer At 100
2017
Beatriz at Dinner
2017
Hickory Dickory Doc
2017
They All Saw a Cat
2017
Miss Sloane
2016
The Accountant
2016
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
2016
Best of Enemies
2015
Inside 'Interstellar'
2015
Projections of America
2015
Interstellar
2014
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
2014
Love Is Strange
2014
The Homesman
2014
9 Kisses
2014
Timms Valley
2013
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
2013
Shrek Stories
2013
National Theatre Live: The Magistrate
2013
This Is 40
2012
Casting By
2012
The Campaign
2012
Shrek: Once Upon a Time
2011
New Year's Eve
2011
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011
Leap Year
2010
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn
2009
The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
2009
Confessions of a Shopaholic
2009
Car of the Future
2008
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
2007
Dreamgirls
2006
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
2006
The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge
2006
Einstein's Big Idea
2005
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
2004
Kinsey
2004
Shrek 3-D
2004
Bark, George
2003
Orange County
2002
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified
2002
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
2001
Shrek
2001
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
2000
Don Quixote
2000
95 Worlds and Counting
2000
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection
1999
A Civil Action
1998
Homegrown
1998
Johnny Skidmarks
1998
Officer Buckle and Gloria
1997
Hollow Point
1996
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
1996
The Tuskegee Airmen
1995
Redwood Curtain
1995
Silent Fall
1994
Princess Caraboo
1994
A Good Man in Africa
1994
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects
1994
The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale
1993
Love, Cheat & Steal
1993
The Pelican Brief
1993
The Wrong Man
1993
Cliffhanger
1993
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
1993
Raising Cain
1992
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
1991
Ricochet
1991
The Boys
1991
Amazing Stories: The Movie II
1990
Memphis Belle
1990
Ivory Hunters
1990
John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert
1990
Night of 100 Stars III
1990
Traveling Man
1989
Out Cold
1989
Distant Thunder
1988
Harry and the Hendersons
1987
The Amazing Bone
1987
The Manhattan Project
1986
Resting Place
1986
Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie
1985
Mesmerized
1985
Santa Claus: The Movie
1985
2010
1984
The Glitter Dome
1984
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1984
Footloose
1984
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
1984
2010 : The Odyssey Continues
1984
The Day After
1983
Terms of Endearment
1983
Twilight Zone: The Movie
1983
The World According to Garp
1982
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
1982
Blow Out
1981
Big Blonde
1980
Mom, the Wolfman and Me
1980
The Oldest Living Graduate
1980
All That Jazz
1979
Rich Kids
1979
The Big Fix
1978
Secret Service
1977
Obsession
1976
The Country Girl
1974
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
1972
Broadway: The Next Generation
Sequestered - Inside Conclave
Stallone on the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger
TV Shows (75)
Harry Potter
2026
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind The Magic
2026
Dexter: Resurrection
2025
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
2025
Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled
2023
Sherri
2022
The Old Man
2022
Dexter: New Blood
2021
Perry Mason
2020
Stars in the House
2020
The Kelly Clarkson Show
2019
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018
James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
2018
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
2018
Trial & Error
2017
The Crown
2016
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
2015
The Late Late Show with James Corden
2015
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
2014
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
2014
Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
2013
Finding Your Roots
2012
Prohibition
2011
Conan
2010
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009
The Graham Norton Show
2007
Twenty Good Years
2006
30 Rock
2006
Dexter
2006
The One Show
2006
The Colbert Report
2005
How I Met Your Mother
2005
DreamWorks 6 Spooky Stories Collection
2003
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
2003
Live from E!
2002
The Early Show
1999
The View
1997
The View
1997
Cosby
1996
The West
1996
The West
1996
The Daily Show
1996
The Rosie O'Donnell Show
1996
3rd Rock from the Sun
1996
World War II: When Lions Roared
1994
American Cinema
1994
Frasier
1993
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993
The Simpsons
1989
The Simpsons
1989
Tales from the Crypt
1989
Amazing Stories
1985
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982
Saturday Night Live
1975
NOVA
1974
Great Performances
1971
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
Tony Awards
1956
Tony Awards
1956
Tony Awards
1956
Tony Awards
1956
The Oscars
1953
Today
1952
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
Golden Globe Awards
1944
Golden Globe Awards
1944
Golden Globe Awards
1944