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John Lithgow
Acting
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 (2…
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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).
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BODY OF WORK
John Lithgow's Filmography
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Giant
as Roald Dahl
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
as Self
Jimpa
as Jimpa
The Rule of Jenny Pen
as Dave Crealy
Spellbound
as Bolinar (voice)
Conclave
as Tremblay
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow
as Self
Cabrini
as Mayor Gould
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
as Self
Killers of the Flower Moon
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
Sharper
as Richard Hobbes
Chez Bob
The Bubble
as Tom the Studio Chairman
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
as Philip Drummond
Show of Titles
as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos
as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
Myths and Hymns
Give My Regards to Broadway
as Self
Bombshell
as Roger Ailes
On Broadway
as Self
The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts
as President Donald J. Trump
The Tomorrow Man
as Ed Hemsler
Pet Sematary
as Jud Crandall
Late Night
as Walter Lovell
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman
as Jud Crandall
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like
as Self
Pitch Perfect 3
as Fergus
Daddy's Home 2
as Don
The Pulitzer At 100
as Self
Beatriz at Dinner
as Doug Strutt
Hickory Dickory Doc
as Himself
They All Saw a Cat
Miss Sloane
as Senator Ronald Sperling
The Accountant
as Lamar Blackburn
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
as Self - Performer
No Poster
Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
as Narrator
Best of Enemies
as Voice of Gore Vidal
No Poster
Lord John
Inside 'Interstellar'
as Self
Projections of America
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Interstellar
as Donald
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
as Maurice (voice)
Love Is Strange
as Ben
The Homesman
as Reverend Alfred Dowd
9 Kisses
as Man in Club
Timms Valley
as Ol' Gregory Timms
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
as Self
Shrek Stories
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
National Theatre Live: The Magistrate
as Posket
This Is 40
as Oliver
Casting By
as Self
The Campaign
as Glen Motch
Shrek: Once Upon a Time
as Self
New Year's Eve
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Charles Rodman
Leap Year
as Jack Brady
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn
as Narrator
The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
as God
Confessions of a Shopaholic
as Edgar West
Car of the Future
as Narrator
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
as Self
Dreamgirls
as Jerry Harris
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge
as Narrator
No Poster
Sangre
as Cafe chef and owner
Einstein's Big Idea
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
as Blake Edwards
Footloose: A Modern Musical
as Self
Kinsey
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
Shrek 3-D
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
No Poster
Dogs and More Dogs
as Narrator
Bark, George
Orange County
as Bud Brumder
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified
as Self
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
Shrek
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
as Jean-Claude (voice)
Don Quixote
as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
95 Worlds and Counting
as Narrator
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special
as (archive footage)
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection
as Dr. Oscar Charles
A Civil Action
as Judge Walter J. Skinner
Homegrown
as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
Johnny Skidmarks
as Sergeant Larry Skovik
Officer Buckle and Gloria
as Narrator (voice)
Hollow Point
as Thomas Livingston
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
as Narrator
The Tuskegee Airmen
as Senator Conyers
Redwood Curtain
as Laird Riordan
No Poster
My Brother's Keeper
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
Silent Fall
as Dr. Rene Harlinger
Princess Caraboo
as Professor Wilkinson
A Good Man in Africa
as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects
as Self
The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale
as Alexander (voice)
Love, Cheat & Steal
as Paul Harrington
The Pelican Brief
as Smith Keen
The Wrong Man
as Phillip Mills
Cliffhanger
as Qualen
Stallone on the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger
as Self
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
as Narrator
Raising Cain
as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
as Leslie Huben
Ricochet
as Earl Talbott Blake
The Boys
as Artie Margulies
Amazing Stories: The Movie II
as John Walters
Memphis Belle
as Bruce Derringer
Ivory Hunters
as Robert Carter
John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert
Night of 100 Stars III
as Self
Happy Birthday, Bugs! 50 Looney Years
as Self
Traveling Man
as Ben Cluett
Out Cold
as Dave
Distant Thunder
as Mark Lambert
Harry and the Hendersons
as George Henderson
The Amazing Bone
as Narrator
No Poster
Baby Girl Scott
as Neil Scott
The Manhattan Project
as John Mathewson
Resting Place
as Maj. Kendall Laird
Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie
as Self
Mesmerized
as Oliver Thompson
Santa Claus: The Movie
as B.Z.
2010
as Dr. Walter Curnow
The Glitter Dome
as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
as Lord John Whorfin
Footloose
as Rev. Shaw Moore
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
as Goldilocks' Father
2010 : The Odyssey Continues
as Himself
The Day After
as Joe Huxley
Terms of Endearment
as Sam Burns
Twilight Zone: The Movie
as Valentine
No Poster
Not in Front of the Children
as Richard Carruthers
The World According to Garp
as Roberta Muldoon
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
as Mr. Brunner
Blow Out
as Burke
Big Blonde
as Herbie Morse
Mom, the Wolfman and Me
as Wally
The Oldest Living Graduate
as Clarence
All That Jazz
as Lucas Sergeant
Rich Kids
as Paul Philips
The Big Fix
as Sam Sebastian
Secret Service
as Capt. Thorne
Obsession
as Robert Lasalle
The Country Girl
as Paul Unger
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
as John
Broadway: The Next Generation
as Self