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John Lithgow
John Lithgow

John Lithgow

ActingBorn October 19, 1945 (age 80)Rochester, New York, USA

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).

Filmography

2026
Harry Potter

as Albus Dumbledore

TV
2026
Giant

as Roald Dahl

Movie
2026
GIANT - The Play

as Roald Dahl

Movie
2026
Jimpa

as Jimpa

Movie
2025
Dexter: Resurrection

as Arthur Mitchell

TV
2025
The Rule of Jenny Pen

as Dave Crealy

Movie
2024
Spellbound

as Bolinar (voice)

Movie
2024
Conclave

as Tremblay

Movie
2024
Cabrini

as Mayor Gould

Movie
2023
Killers of the Flower Moon

as Prosecutor Peter Leaward

Movie
2023
Sharper

as Richard Hobbes

Movie
2022Movie
2022
Sherri

as Self - Guest

TV
2022
The Old Man

as Harold Harper

TV
2022
The Bubble

as Tom the Studio Chairman

Movie
2021
Dexter: New Blood

as Arthur Mitchell

TV
2021
Show of Titles

as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer

Movie
2021
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos

as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)

Movie
2020
Perry Mason

as Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan

TV
2020
Stars in the House

as Self - Special Guest

TV
2019
Bombshell

as Roger Ailes

Movie
2019Movie
2019Movie
2019
The Tomorrow Man

as Ed Hemsler

Movie
2019
Pet Sematary

as Jud Crandall

Movie
2019
Late Night

as Walter Lovell

Movie
2017Movie
2017Movie
2017Movie
2017
Beatriz at Dinner

as Doug Strutt

Movie
2017
Trial & Error

as Larry Henderson

TV
2017Movie
2016
Miss Sloane

as Senator Ronald Sperling

Movie
2016
The Crown

as Winston Churchill

TV
2016
The Accountant

as Lamar Blackburn

Movie
2016Movie
2015
Best of Enemies

as Voice of Gore Vidal

Movie
2015Movie
2015Movie
2015
Projections of America

as Self - Narrator (voice)

Movie
2014
Interstellar

as Donald

Movie
2014
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

as James Roosevelt (voice)

TV
2014Movie
2014
The Homesman

as Reverend Alfred Dowd

Movie
2014
9 Kisses

as Man in Club

Movie
2013
Timms Valley

as Ol' Gregory Timms

Movie
2013
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

as The White Rabbit (voice)

TV
2013
Shrek Stories

as Lord Farquaad (voice)

Movie
2012
This Is 40

as Oliver

Movie
2012
Casting By

as Self

Movie
2012
The Campaign

as Glen Motch

Movie
2012TV
2011Movie
2011
New Year's Eve

as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)

Movie
2011
Prohibition

as Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice)

TV
2011Movie
2010
Conan

as Self

TV
2010
Leap Year

as Jack Brady

Movie
2009Movie
2008Movie
2006
Dreamgirls

as Jerry Harris

Movie
2006
Twenty Good Years

as John Mason

TV
2006
30 Rock

as John Lithgow

TV
2006
Dexter

as Arthur Mitchell

TV
2006TV
2006
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays

as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")

Movie
2006
Sangre

as Cafe chef and owner

Movie
2005
Einstein's Big Idea

as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition

Movie
2005
How I Met Your Mother

as Jerry Whittaker

TV
2004Movie
2004TV
2004
Kinsey

as Alfred Seguine Kinsey

Movie
2004
Shrek 3-D

as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)

Movie
2004Movie
2003
DreamWorks 6 Spooky Stories Collection

as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)

TV
2003
Jimmy Kimmel Live!

as Self - Guest

TV
2003Movie
2002TV
2002
Orange County

as Bud Brumder

Movie
2001
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party

as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)

Movie
2001
Shrek

as Lord Farquaad (voice)

Movie
2000
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie

as Jean-Claude (voice)

Movie
2000
Don Quixote

as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano

Movie
2000Movie
1999TV
1998
A Civil Action

as Judge Walter J. Skinner

Movie
1998
Homegrown

as Malcolm / Robert Stockman

Movie
1998
Johnny Skidmarks

as Sergeant Larry Skovik

Movie
1997
The View

as Self

TV
1997
The View

as Self - Guest

TV
1997
Officer Buckle and Gloria

as Narrator (voice)

Movie
1996
Hollow Point

as Thomas Livingston

Movie
1996
Cosby

as John Lithgow

TV
1996
The West

as Self

TV
1996
The West

as Self / Uriah Oblinger (voice)

TV
1996TV
1996TV
1996
3rd Rock from the Sun

as Dick Solomon

TV
1995
The Tuskegee Airmen

as Senator Conyers

Movie
1995
Redwood Curtain

as Laird Riordan

Movie
1995
My Brother's Keeper

as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley

Movie
1994
Silent Fall

as Dr. Rene Harlinger

Movie
1994
Princess Caraboo

as Professor Wilkinson

Movie
1994
A Good Man in Africa

as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner

Movie
1994
World War II: When Lions Roared

as Franklin Delano Roosevelt

TV
1994
American Cinema

as Self - Host

TV
1993
Love, Cheat & Steal

as Paul Harrington

Movie
1993
The Pelican Brief

as Smith Keen

Movie
1993
Frasier

as Madman Martinez (voice)

TV
1993TV
1993
The Wrong Man

as Phillip Mills

Movie
1993
Cliffhanger

as Qualen

Movie
1993Movie
1992
Raising Cain

as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo

Movie
1991Movie
1991
Ricochet

as Earl Talbott Blake

Movie
1991
The Boys

as Artie Margulies

Movie
1990
Amazing Stories: The Movie II

as John Walters (archive footage)

Movie
1990
Memphis Belle

as Bruce Derringer

Movie
1990
Ivory Hunters

as Robert Carter

Movie
1990Movie
1989
The Simpsons

as Gus (voice)

TV
1989
The Simpsons

as John Lithgow (voice)

TV
1989
Traveling Man

as Ben Cluett

Movie
1989
Tales from the Crypt

as Dr. Oscar Charles

TV
1989
Out Cold

as Dave

Movie
1988
Distant Thunder

as Mark Lambert

Movie
1987
Harry and the Hendersons

as George Henderson

Movie
1987
The Amazing Bone

as Narrator

Movie
1987
Baby Girl Scott

as Neil Scott

Movie
1986
The Manhattan Project

as John Mathewson

Movie
1986
Resting Place

as Maj. Kendall Laird

Movie
1985
Mesmerized

as Oliver Thompson

Movie
1985Movie
1985
Amazing Stories

as John Walters

TV
1984
2010

as Dr. Walter Curnow

Movie
1984
The Glitter Dome

as Sgt. Marty Wellborn

Movie
1984
Footloose

as Rev. Shaw Moore

Movie
1984
Goldilocks and the Three Bears

as Goldilocks' Father

Movie
1984Movie
1983
The Day After

as Joe Huxley

Movie
1983Movie
1983Movie
1982
Not in Front of the Children

as Richard Carruthers

Movie
1982
Faerie Tale Theatre

as Goldilocks' Father

TV
1982
The World According to Garp

as Roberta Muldoon

Movie
1982Movie
1981
Blow Out

as Burke

Movie
1980
Big Blonde

as Herbie Morse

Movie
1980Movie
1980Movie
1979
All That Jazz

as Lucas Sergeant

Movie
1979
Rich Kids

as Paul Philips

Movie
1978
The Big Fix

as Sam Sebastian

Movie
1977
Secret Service

as Capt. Thorne

Movie
1976
Obsession

as Robert Lasalle

Movie
1975
Saturday Night Live

as Self - Host

TV
1974
NOVA

as Narrator

TV
1974
The Country Girl

as Paul Unger

Movie
1971
Great Performances

as Capt. Thorne

TV
1956
Tony Awards

as Self - Winner

TV
1956
Tony Awards

as Self - Nominee

TV
1956
Tony Awards

as Self - Presenter

TV
1956
Tony Awards

as Self - Nominee / Performer

TV
1953
The Oscars

as Self - Presenter

TV
1952
Today

as Self

TV
1951TV
1951
Hallmark Hall of Fame

as Major Kendall Laird

TV
1951
Hallmark Hall of Fame

as Laird Riordan

TV
1944
Golden Globe Awards

as Self - Nominee

TV
1944
Golden Globe Awards

as Self - Presenter

TV
1944
Golden Globe Awards

as Self - Winner

TV

Personal Info

DepartmentActing
BirthdayOctober 19, 1945
Place of BirthRochester, New York, USA
Popularity2.2