John Lithgow

Actors

John Arthur Lithgow (born October 19, 1945) is an American actor, musician, poet, author, and singer, best known for his work in theater, television, and film. Over the course of his career he has received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, six Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards. He has also been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.He made his film debut in Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972), with Robert F. Lyons, Barbara Hershey, Charles Durning, Joy Bang, Ellen Barber, and Paul Sorvino.

Other roles in the 1970s include Brian De Palma’s Obsession (1976), with Cliff Robertson and Geneviève Bujold; Jeremy Kagan’s The Big Fix (1978), with Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Anspach, Bonnie Bedelia, and F. Murray Abraham; Robert M. Young’s Rich Kids (1979), with Trini Alvarado, Jeremy Levy, Kathryn Walker, Terry Kiser, David Selby, Roberta Maxwell, Paul Dooley, and Irene Worth; and Bob Fosse‘s All That Jazz (1979), with Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer, Cliff Gorman, and Ben Vereen.

He received back to back Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in George Roy Hill‘s The World According to Garp (1982), with Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, and Glenn Close; and James L. Brooks‘s Terms of Endearment (1983), with Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, and Jeff Daniels.

Other films in the early 1980s includeDe Palma’s Blow Out (1981), with John Travolta, Nancy Allen, and Denis Franz; I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), with Jill Clayburgh, Nicol Williamson, Geraldine Page, Dianne Wiest, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern; George Miller’s segment of the anthology film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), with Abbe Lane and Donna Dixon; Herbert Ross’s Footloose (1984), with Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, Chris Penn, and Wiest; Buckaroo Banzai (1984), with Peter Weller, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Rosalind Cash, Clancy Brown, Pepe Serna, Robert Ito, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Jonathan Banks, John Ashton, Carl Lumbly, and Ronald Lacey; Peter Hyams’s 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), with Scheider, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban, Keir Dullea, and Douglas Rain.

Films in the mid to late 1980s include Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), with Dudley Moore, David Huddleston, Judy Cromwell, and Burgess Meredith; Mesmerized (1986), with Jodie Foster and Michael Murphy; Marshall Brickman’s The Manhattan Project (1986), with Christopher Collet, John Mahoney, Jill Eikenberry, and Cynthia Nixon; Harry and the Hendersons (1987), with Melinda Dillon, Don Ameche, David Suchet, Lainie Kazan; Rick Rosenthal’s Distant Thunder (1988), with Ralph Macchio; and Out Cold (1989), with Teri Garr, Randy Quaid, and Bruce McGill.

Films in the early 1990s include Michael Caton-Jones’s Memphis Belle (1990), with Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Sean Astin, Harry Connick Jr., Reed Diamond, Tate Donovan, D.B. Sweeney, Billy Zane, Courtney Gains, and Neil Giuntoli; Héctor Babenco’s At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991), with Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn, Tom Waits, and Kathy Bates; Russell Mulcahy’s Ricochet (1991), with Denzel Washington, Ice-T, Kevin Pollak, Lindsay Wagner, and John Amos; De Palma’s Raising Cain (1992), with Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer, and Frances Sternhagen; The Wrong Man (1993), with Rosanna Arquette and Kevin Anderson; Alan J. Pakula’s The Pelican Brief (1993), with Julia Roberts, Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, James B. Sikking, William Atherton, Robert Culp, Stanley Tucci, and Hume Cronyn; Cliffhanger (1993), with Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Leon Robinson, Paul Winfield, and Ralph Waite; Bruce Beresford’s Silent Fall (1994), with Dreyfuss, Linda Hamilton, J.T. Walsh, and Liv Tyler; Princess Caraboo (1994), with Phoebe Cates, Jim Broadbent, Wendy Hughes, Kevin Kline, and Stephen Rea; and A Good Man in Africa (1994), with Colin Friels, Sean Connery, Joanne Whalley, Louis Gossett Jr., and Diana Rigg.

Films in the mid to late 1990s include Sidney J. Furie’s Hollow Point (1996), with Thomas Ian Griffith, Tia Carrere, and Donald Sutherland; Stephen Gyllenhaal’s Homegrown (1998), with Billy Bob Thornton, Hank Azaria, Kelly Lynch, Jon Bon Jovi, Ryan Phillippe, Judge Reinhold, Jon Tenney, Ted Danson, and Jamie Lee Curtis; Johnny Skidmarks (1998), with Peter Gallagher, Frances McDormand, and John Kapelos; and A Civil Action (1998), with Travolta, Robert Duvall, James Gandolfini, Hedaya, William H. Macy, and Tony Shalhoub.

Films in the 2000s include voice roles in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000), with E.G. Daily, Tara Strong, Cheryl Chase, Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, Michael Bell, Dionne Quan, and Susan Sarandon; Shrek (2001), with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz; Jake Kasdan’s Orange County (2001), with Colin Hanks, Jack Black, Schuyler Fisk, Catherine O’Hara, Leslie Mann, Garry Marshall, Dana Ivey, Harold Ramis, Jane Adams, Chevy Chase, and Lily Tomlin; Bill Condon’s Kinsey (2004), with Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, and Dylan Baker; Dreamgirls (2006), with Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé Knowles, Danny Glover, Anika Noni Rose, and Keith Robinson; and P.J. Hogan’s Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), with Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Leslie Bibb.

Films in the 2010s include Leap Year (2010), with Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, and Adam Scott; Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), with James Franco, Freida Pinto, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, and Andy Serkis; New Year’s Eve (2011), with Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, and Sofía Vergara; Jay Roach’s The Campaign (2012), with Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Katherine LaNasa, Dylan McDermott, Dan Aykroyd, and Cox; Judd Apatow’s This Is 40 (2012), with Paul Rudd, Mann, Megan Fox, Albert Brooks, Jason Segal, Charlyne Yi, Chris O’Dowd, Melissa McCarthy; Ira Sachs’s Love Is Strange (2014), with Alfred Molina, Darren Burrows, Charlie Tahan, Cheyenne Jackson, Manny Pérez, and Marisa Tomei; The Homesman (2014), with Tommy Lee Jones (who also directed), Swank, Meryl Streep, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Hailee Steinfeld, Jesse Plemons, and James Spader; and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), with Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Timothée Chalamet.

Films in the mid to late 2010s include Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant (2016), with Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Jeffrey Tambor; John Madden’s Miss Sloane (2016), with Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, and Sam Waterston; Miguel Arteta’s Beatriz at Dinner (2017), with Salma Hayek, Connie Britton, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Chloë Sevigny, and David Warshofsky; Sean Anders’s Daddy’s Home 2 (2017), with Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini, John Cena, Mel Gibson; Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), with Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, Alexis Knapp, Kelly Jakle, Shelley Regner, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Banks, DJ Khaled, Ruby Rose, Matt Lanter, and Guy Burnet; Nisha Ganatra’s Late Night (2019), with Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, Max Casella, Hugh Dancy, Denis O’Hare, Reid Scott, and Amy Ryan; The Tomorrow Man (2019), with Blythe Danner, Derek Cecil, Katie Aselton, Sophie Thatcher, and Eve Harlow; Pet Sematary (2019), with Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz; and Bombshell (2019), with Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, and Richard Kind.

Films in the 2020s include a cameo in The Bubble (2022), with Karen Gillan, Vir Das, Pedro Pascal, Iris Apatow, Fred Armisen, Maria Bakalova, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Mann, McKinnon, Guz Khan, Peter Serafinowicz, and Harry Trevaldwyn; Sharper (2023), with Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, and Briana Middleton; Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), with Leonardo DiCaprio, De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, and Brendan Fraser; Cabrini (2024), with Cristiana Dell’Anna, David Morse, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Federico Ielapi, Virginia Bocelli, Rolando Villazón, and Giancarlo Giannini; Edward Berger’s Conclave (2024), with Ralph Fiennes, Tucci, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini; The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024), with Geoffrey Rush and George Henare; a voice role in Spellbound (2024), with Rachel Ziegler, Jenifer Lewis, Tituss Burgess, Nathan Lane, Javier Bardem, and Kidman; and Jimpa (2025), with Olivia Coleman, Aud Mason-Hyde, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Kate Box, and Daniel Henshall.

On TV he is also for his role as Dick Solomon in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001), with Kristen Johnston, French Stewart, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jane Curtin, Simbi Khali, Elmarie Wendel, and Wayne Knight – winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance. He also played Arthur Mitchell in the drama Dexter (2009), with Michael C. Hall – winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama. He won another Primetime Emmy Award for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Peter Morgan’s historical drama The Crown (2016–2019), with Claire Foy, Matt Smith, Vanessa Kirby, Eileen Atkins, Jeremy Northam, Victoria Hamilton, Ben Miles, Greg Wise, Jared Harris, John Lithgow, Alex Jennings, Lia Williams, Anton Lesser, and Goode. He received another Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Perry Mason (2020-2023), with Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Shea Whigham, Tatiana Maslany, Justin Kirk, Diarra Kilpatrick, Eric Lange, and Katherine Waterston. He received a Golden Globe nomination (Best Supporting Actor – Television) for The Old Man (2022-2024), with Jeff Bridges, E.J. Bonilla, Bill Heck, Leem Lubany, Alia Shawkat, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Amy Brenneman, Navid Negahban, and Jacqueline Antaramian.

TV movies and miniseries in the 1970s to 1980s include The Country Girl (1974), with Jason Robards and Shirley Knight; The Oldest Living Graduate (1980), with Henry Fonda, George Grizzard, Cloris Leachman, and Hutton; Mom, the Wolfman and Me (1980), with Patty Duke, David Birney, and Keenan Wynn; Big Blonde (1980), with Sally Kellerman and Trey Wilson; Not in Front of the Children (1982), with Linda Grey and John Getz; Nicholas Meyer’s The Day After (1983), with Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum, and Amy Madigan; The Glitter Dome (1984), with James Garner and Margot Kidder; Resting Place (1986), with Morgan Freeman, CCH Pounder, Sternhagen and G.D. Spradlin; Baby Girl Scott (1987), with Hurt and Ronny Cox; Irvin Kershner’s Traveling Man (1989), with Jonathan Silverman, Margaret Colin, John Glover, John M. Jackson, and Chynna Phillips.

TV movies and miniseries in the 1990s to 2000s include Joseph Sargent’s Ivory Hunters (1990), with Rossellini and James Earl Jones; World War II: When Lions Roared (1994), with Caine and Bob Hoskins; My Brother’s Keeper (1995), with Annette O’Toole, Veronica Cartwright, and Zeljko Ivanek; Redwood Curtain (1995), with Daniels, Lea Salonga, Debra Monk, and Catherine Hicks; The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), with Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Courtney B. Vance, Andre Braugher, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Allen Payne, and Mekhi Phifer; Peter Yates’s Don Quixote (2000), with Hoskins, Rossellini, Vanessa Williams, Lambert Wilson, Amelia Warner, Tony Haygarth, Peter Eyre, Lilo Baur, James Purefoy, and Trevor Peacock; and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), with Rush, Theron, Emily Watson, Miriam Margolyes, Peter Vaughan, Sonia Aquino, Tucci, and Stephen Fry.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972) – directed by Paul Williams
  • The Country Girl (1975) – directed by Paul Bogart – TV movie
  • Obsession (1976) – directed by Brian De Palma
  • The Big Fix (1978) – directed by Jeremy Kagan
  • Rich Kids (1979) – directed by Robert M. Young
  • All That Jazz (1979) – directed by Bob Fosse
  • The Oldest Living Graduate (1980) – directed by Jack Hofsiss – TV movie
  • Mom, the Wolfman and Me (1980) – directed by Edmond Levy – TV movie
  • Big Blonde (1980) – directed by Kirk Browning
  • Blow Out (1981) – directed by Brian De Palma
  • I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) – directed by Jack Hofsiss
  • The World According to Garp (1982) – directed by George Roy Hill
  • Not in Front of the Children (1982) – directed by Joseph Hardy – TV movie
  • Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) – directed by John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, & George Miller – anthology
  • The Day After (1983) – directed by Nicholas Meyer – TV movie
  • Terms of Endearment (1983) – directed by James L. Brooks
  • Footloose (1984) – directed by Herbert Ross
  • The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) – directed by W.D. Richter
  • The Glitter Dome (1984) – directed by Stuart Margolin – TV movie
  • 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) – directed by Peter Hyams
  • Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) – directed by Jeannot Szwarc
  • The Amazing Bone (1985) – directed by Michael Sporn – short
  • Resting Place (1986) – directed by John Korty – TV movie
  • Mesmerized (1986) – directed by Michael Laughlin
  • The Manhattan Project (1986) – directed by Marshall Brickman
  • Baby Girl Scott (1987) – directed by John Korty – TV movie
  • Harry and the Hendersons (1987) – directed by William Dear
  • Distant Thunder (1988) – directed by Rick Rosenthal
  • Out Cold (1989) – directed by Malcolm Mowbray
  • Traveling Man (1989) – directed by Irvin Kershner – TV movie
  • Ivory Hunters (1990) – directed by Joseph Sargent – TV movie
  • Memphis Belle (1990) – directed by Michael Caton-Jones
  • The Boys (1991) – directed by Glenn Jordan – TV movie
  • Ricochet (1991) – directed by Russell Mulcahy
  • At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) – directed by Hector Babenco
  • Raising Cain (1992) – directed by Brian De Palma
  • The Wrong Man (1993) – directed by Jim McBride
  • Love, Cheat & Steal (1993) – directed by William Curran
  • The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale (1993) – directed by Michael Sporn – short
  • The Pelican Brief (1993) – directed by Alan J. Pakula
  • Cliffhanger (1993) – directed by Renny Harlin
  • Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1993) – directed by Gene Deitch
  • World War II: When Lions Roared (1994) – directed by Joseph Sargent – TV movie – aka Then There Were Giants
  • Silent Fall (1994) – directed by Bruce Beresford
  • Princess Caraboo (1994) – directed by Michael Austin
  • A Good Man in Africa (1994) – directed by Bruce Beresford
  • My Brother’s Keeper (1995) – directed by Glenn Jordan – TV movie
  • Redwood Curtain (1995) – directed by John Korty – TV movie
  • The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) – directed by Robert Markowitz – TV movie
  • Hollow Point (1996) – directed by Sidney J. Furie
  • Officer Buckle and Gloria (1997) – directed by Chris Larson – short
  • Homegrown (1998) – directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal
  • Johnny Skidmarks (1998) – directed by John Raffo
  • A Civil Action (1998) – directed by Steven Zaillian
  • Don Quixote (2000) – directed by Peter Yates – TV movie
  • Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000)* – directed by Stig Bergqvist & Paul Demeyer
  • Shrek (2001)* – directed by Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson
  • Orange County (2002)* – directed by Jake Kasdan
  • Bark George (2003) – directed by George Deitch – short
  • My Life, Inc. (2004) – directed Terry Hughes – TV short
  • The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) – directed by Stephen Hopkins – TV movie
  • Kinsey (2004) – directed by Bill Condon
  • Einstein’s Big Idea (2005) – directed by Gary Johnstone – documentary – aka E=mc²
  • Dreamgirls (2006) – directed by Bill Condon
  • Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) – directed by P.J. Hogan
  • The Macabre World of Lavender Williams (2009) – directed by Nick Delgado – short
  • Leap Year (2010) – directed by Anand Tucker
  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)* – directed by Rupert Wyatt
  • New Year’s Eve (2011) – directed by Garry Marshall – uncredited cameo
  • The Campaign (2012) – directed by Jay Roach
  • This Is 40 (2012) – directed by Judd Apatow
  • Love Is Strange (2014) – directed by Ira Sachs
  • The Homesman (2014) – directed by Tommy Lee Jones
  • Interstellar (2014) – directed by Christopher Nolan
  • 9 Kisses (2014) – directed by Elaine Constantine – short
  • Best of Enemies (2015) – directed by Robert Gordon & Morgan Neville – documentary
  • The Accountant (2016) – directed by Gavin O’Connor
  • Miss Sloane (2016) – directed by John Madden
  • Beatriz at Dinner (2017) – directed by Miguel Arteta
  • Daddy’s Home 2 (2017) – directed by Sean Anders
  • Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) – directed by Trish Sie
  • Late Night (2019) – directed by Nisha Ganatra
  • The Tomorrow Man (2019) – directed by Noble Jones
  • Pet Sematary (2019) – directed by Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer
  • Bombshell (2019) – directed by Jay Roach
  • Sharper (2023) – directed by Benjamin Caron
  • Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) – directed by Martin Scorsese
  • Spellbound (2024) – directed by Vicky Jenson
  • Cabrini (2024) – directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde
  • Conclave (2024) – directed by Edward Berger
  • The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024) – directed by James Ashcroft
  • Jimpa (2025) – directed by Sophie Hyde