1. John Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his diverse work on stage and screen.
87 Facts About John Lithgow
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John Lithgow has received numerous accolades including six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and two Tony Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Grammy Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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John Lithgow was Tony-nominated for Requiem for a Heavyweight, M Butterfly, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
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John Lithgow has appeared on Broadway in The Columnist, A Delicate Balance, and Hillary and Clinton.
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John Lithgow portrayed Roald Dahl in the play, Giant, on the West End, and for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor.
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John Lithgow received further Primetime Emmy Awards for his performances as Arthur Mitchell in the drama, Dexter and as Winston Churchill in the Netflix drama, The Crown.
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John Lithgow starred in the television series for HBO entitled, Perry Mason and for FX entitled, The Old Man.
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John Lithgow acted in All That Jazz, Blow Out, Footloose, Harry and the Hendersons, A Civil Action, Shrek, Kinsey, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Love Is Strange, Interstellar, Late Night, Bombshell, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Conclave.
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John Lithgow was born on October 19,1945, in Rochester, New York.
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John Lithgow's mother, Sarah Jane, was a retired actress.
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John Lithgow's father, Arthur Lithgow, was a theatrical producer and director who ran McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.
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John Lithgow's father was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to a European-American family; his great-grandfather was a vice consul and vice commercial agent in the country.
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John Lithgow is the third of four children and his siblings are an older brother David Lithgow, an older sister Robin Lithgow, and a younger sister Sarah Jane Bokaer.
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John Lithgow is related to that show's host, the historian and literary critic, Henry Louis Gates Jr.
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John Lithgow spent his childhood years in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where activist Coretta Scott King was his babysitter.
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John Lithgow spent his teenage years in Akron and Lakewood, Ohio, followed by Princeton, New Jersey.
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John Lithgow then studied history and English literature at Harvard College.
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John Lithgow lived in Adams House as an undergraduate and later served on the Harvard Board of Overseers.
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John Lithgow was a pupil of dramatist Robert Chapman who was the director of Harvard's Loeb Drama Center.
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In 1972, John Lithgow made his film debut in Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues.
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In 1973, John Lithgow debuted on Broadway in David Storey's The Changing Room at the Morosco Theatre, earning him his first Tony nomination for Featured Actor in a Play and his first win.
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John Lithgow starred in several plays such as 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, A Memory of Two Mondays, and Secret Service with Meryl Streep at The Public Theatre, as well as with Tom Hulce at the Playhouse Theatre.
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John Lithgow acted in Bob Fosse's semiautobiographical movie, All That Jazz, playing a character was loosely based on real-life Broadway director and choreographer Michael Bennett, known for his work on Follies, Company, Dreamgirls, and A Chorus Line.
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Between 1978 and 1980, John Lithgow appeared in ten episodes of the radio drama revival series, CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
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John Lithgow voiced the character of Yoda in the National Public Radio adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
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In 1982 and 1983, John Lithgow was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp and as Sam Burns in Terms of Endearment.
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In 1983, John Lithgow appeared in a remake of the classic Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" in Twilight Zone: The Movie as the paranoid passenger made famous on the television show by William Shatner.
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Also in 1983 John Lithgow appeared in a minor role in the nuclear apocalypse television film The Day After.
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In 1987, John Lithgow starred in the Bigfoot-themed family comedy Harry and the Hendersons.
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In 1986, John Lithgow received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his appearance in the episode "The Doll" of the Amazing Stories anthology series.
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Additionally, John Lithgow has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for The Day After and two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for Resting Place and again for My Brother's Keeper.
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John Lithgow was approached about playing Dr Frasier Crane on Cheers, but turned it down.
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In 1994, John Lithgow played Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the NBC miniseries, World War II: When Lions Roared directed by Joseph Sargent, and starring alongside Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins.
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John Lithgow provided narration for the IMAX film, Special Effects: Anything Can Happen.
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John Lithgow received six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and won the award three times.
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John Lithgow lent his voice to the character Jean Claude in the 2000 Nickelodeon Movies animated film, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie.
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In 2001, John Lithgow gained recognition for voicing the evil, but dwarfish, Lord Farquaad in the Academy Award-winning DreamWorks Animation film, Shrek, alongside Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz.
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That same year, John Lithgow returned to Broadway portraying JJ Hunsecker in the adaptation of the 1957 film, Sweet Smell of Success, acting alongside Brian d'Arcy James.
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John Lithgow won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance.
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That same year, John Lithgow was elected into the American Theater Hall of Fame for his work on Broadway, as well as for his performances in operas by Verdi and Wagner.
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In 2006, John Lithgow had a small role in the Academy Award-winning film, Dreamgirls, as Jerry Harris, a film producer offering Deena Jones a film role.
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In 2005, John Lithgow became the first ever actor to deliver a commencement speech at Harvard University, his alma mater, and they awarded him an honorary Doctor of Arts.
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John Lithgow returned for a 2005 revival, the Houston Ballet production of the same show in 2007, and the Pennsylvania Ballet production of it in 2008.
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In 2007, John Lithgow played Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Twelfth Night, at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in the United Kingdom.
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John Lithgow starred with Jeffrey Tambor in the NBC sitcom, Twenty Good Years.
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On March 5,2009, John Lithgow made a cameo on NBC's 30 Rock acting in the episode "Goodbye, My Friend" with several references to his role in Harry and the Hendersons.
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In September 2009, John Lithgow joined the cast of Dexter as Arthur Mitchell, a serial killer and Dexter Morgan's nemesis.
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John Lithgow won a Golden Globe Award for this role and won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series.
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John Lithgow guest starred on How I Met Your Mother in the role of Barney Stinson's father, Jerry.
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In 2008 through 2009, John Lithgow played Joe Keller in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons directed by Simon McBurney.
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John Lithgow starred alongside Dianne Wiest, Patrick Wilson, and Katie Holmes in her Broadway debut at the Schoenfeld Theatre.
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John Lithgow hosted Paloozaville, a children's Video on demand program on Mag Rack based on his bestselling children's books.
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John Lithgow appears in Books By You, a children's computer game that guides them through the steps to personalize a predesigned book.
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On October 1,2010, Lithgow appeared on Doug Benson's podcast, Doug Loves Movies, with fellow guests Paul F Tompkins and Jimmy Pardo.
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John Lithgow appeared on Chris Hardwick's show, The Nerdist Podcast in 2012 and the WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2019.
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In 2015, John Lithgow did the voice over work for Gore Vidal in the documentary film, Best of Enemies, with Kelsey Grammer.
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In 2012, John Lithgow returned to Broadway in David Auburn's play, The Columnist, which played at the Manhattan Theatre Club.
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In fall 2014, John Lithgow returned to Broadway as Tobias in a revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance.
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John Lithgow starred opposite Glenn Close, Martha Plimpton, Lindsay Duncan, Bob Balaban, and Clare Higgins.
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John Lithgow gained critical attention for starring in Ira Sachs' independent romance film, Love Is Strange.
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In 2016, John Lithgow appeared in the first season of The Crown portraying Winston Churchill.
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John Lithgow won numerous awards for his performance, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
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On October 18,2017, John Lithgow coauthored the New York Times daily crossword puzzle.
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John Lithgow starred in the independent film, Beatriz at Dinner.
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John Lithgow has performed this play around the US, starting at the Lincoln Center Theater with Willie Nelson in 2008, with a return performance at Lincoln Center for April to May 2019.
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In 2018, John Lithgow was one of the actors who voiced the audiobook, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.
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In 2019, John Lithgow lent his voice for an audio play, If You Win, by Emily Chadick Weiss for Playing on Air and was released in spring 2020.
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In 2019, John Lithgow co-starred in Mindy Kaling's comedy, Late Night.
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In 2022, John Lithgow portrayed Harold Harper in the Hulu series, The Old Man, opposite Jeff Bridges.
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In 2022, John Lithgow presented Liv Ullmann with the Academy Honorary Award at the Governors Awards.
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In 2023, John Lithgow acted in Martin Scorsese's, Killers of the Flower Moon, as Prosecutor Peter Leaward.
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In May 2024, John Lithgow was announced to be starring alongside Olivia Colman in the film, Jimpa, directed by Australian director Sophie Hyde and filmed in South Australia, Amsterdam, and Helsinki.
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John Lithgow starred opposite Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini.
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In September 2024, John Lithgow portrayed Roald Dahl in the West End production of the Mark Rosenblatt play, Giant at the Royal Court Theatre.
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On February 25,2025, John Lithgow confirmed previous reports that he would play Dumbledore in the HBO Harry Potter series.
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John Lithgow has done extensive work for children, including several books and albums.
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John Lithgow appeared as a guest on Ants in Your Pants, a Canadian program for children.
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John Lithgow launched into a career as a recording artist with Singin' in the Bathtub, a 1999 album of music for children.
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In June 2002, John Lithgow released his second album for children Farkle and Friends; however, Waylon Jennings died four months before its release, and it was dedicated to his memory.
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John Lithgow makes occasional appearances on stage and television singing songs for children, accompanying himself on guitar.
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In June 2019, John Lithgow portrayed Donald Trump in The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts, a live reading of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
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John Lithgow portrayed Rudy Giuliani in a series of skits on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
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In October 2019, John Lithgow published Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse, a book of poems and illustrations.
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John Lithgow subsequently married UCLA history professor, Mary Yeager, and they had a son and daughter together.
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John Lithgow has received two Tony Awards, six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, an American Comedy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, four Drama Desk Awards, and he has been nominated for two Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards.
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John Lithgow has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
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John Lithgow was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2019.