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 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).
Acting
Movie
Interstellar
as Donald
2014
Movie
Shrek
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
2001
Movie
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
as Charles Rodman
2011
TV
The Simpsons
as Gus (voice)
1989
TV
The Simpsons
as John Lithgow (voice)
1989
Movie
The Accountant
as Lamar Blackburn
2016
TV
How I Met Your Mother
as Jerry Whittaker
2005
TV
Dexter
as Arthur Mitchell
2006
Movie
Killers of the Flower Moon
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
2023
Movie
Pitch Perfect 3
as Fergus
2017
Movie
Pet Sematary
as Jud Crandall
2019
Movie
Conclave
as Tremblay
2024
Movie
Bombshell
as Roger Ailes
2019
Movie
Confessions of a Shopaholic
as Edgar West
2009
Movie
Daddy's Home 2
as Don
2017
Movie
Cliffhanger
as Qualen
1993
Movie
This Is 40
as Oliver
2012
TV
The Crown
as Winston Churchill
2016
Movie
New Year's Eve
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
2011
Movie
Footloose
as Rev. Shaw Moore
1984
Movie
Leap Year
as Jack Brady
2010
Movie
Miss Sloane
as Senator Ronald Sperling
2016
Movie
The Campaign
as Glen Motch
2012
Movie
The Pelican Brief
as Smith Keen
1993