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