John Lithgow
Known for Acting · 210 credits
- Born
- 1945-10-19 (age 80)
- Place of birth
- Rochester, New York, USA
- Also known as
- 莊李富高 · John Arthur Lithgow · 約翰.李斯高 · جان لیتگو
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 (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).
Known For
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
as Self
The Simpsons
1989
as Gus (voice) / John Lithgow (voice)
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009
as Self - Guest
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
as Self / Self - Guest
The Daily Show
1996
as Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
as Self - Guest
TV Shows (65)
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
as Self
The Simpsons
1989
as Gus (voice) / John Lithgow (voice)
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009
as Self - Guest
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
as Self / Self - Guest
The Daily Show
1996
as Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
as Self - Guest
Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014
as Self
Dexter
2006
as Arthur Mitchell
The Kelly Clarkson Show
2019
as Self
The Graham Norton Show
2007
as Self
Conan
2010
as Self
Saturday Night Live
1975
as Self - Host
How I Met Your Mother
2005
as Jerry Whittaker
Frasier
1993
as Madman Martinez (voice)
The Colbert Report
2005
NOVA
1974
as Narrator
The Late Late Show with James Corden
2015
as Self - Guest
The View
1997
as Self / Self - Guest
The Crown
2016
as Winston Churchill
Golden Globe Awards
1944
as Self - Nominee / Self - Presenter / Self - Winner
30 Rock
2006
as John Lithgow
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
2003
as Self - Guest
The One Show
2006
as Self
Sherri
2022
as Self - Guest
Great Performances
1971
as Capt. Thorne
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993
as Self - Guest
3rd Rock from the Sun
1996
as Dick Solomon
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
2014
as Self
Tony Awards
1956
as Self - Winner / Self - Nominee / Self - Presenter / Self - Nominee / Performer
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
2015
as Self
Tales from the Crypt
1989
as Dr. Oscar Charles
The Tony Danza Show
2004
as Self
Stars in the House
2020
as Self - Special Guest
Amazing Stories
1985
as John Walters
Finding Your Roots
2012
as Self
The Oscars
1953
as Self - Presenter
Dexter: New Blood
2021
as Arthur Mitchell
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982
as Goldilocks' Father
Perry Mason
2020
as Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018
The Old Man
2022
as Harold Harper
Dexter: Resurrection
2025
as Arthur Mitchell
Today
1952
as Self
Cosby
1996
as John Lithgow
Live from E!
2002
as Self
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
2018
as Self - Guest
Trial & Error
2017
as Larry Henderson
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
2025
as Self
Harry Potter
2026
as Albus Dumbledore
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
2013
as The White Rabbit (voice)
The Rosie O'Donnell Show
1996
as Self - Guest
James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
2018
as Self
The Early Show
1999
as Self
The West
1996
as Self / Self / Uriah Oblinger (voice)
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Paul Unger / Major Kendall Laird / Laird Riordan
Prohibition
2011
as Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice)
Twenty Good Years
2006
as John Mason
VH1 Goes Inside
2003
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
2014
as James Roosevelt (voice)
DreamWorks 6 Spooky Stories Collection
2003
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
Movies (145)
Interstellar
2014
as Donald
Shrek
2001
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011
as Charles Rodman
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
The Accountant
2016
as Lamar Blackburn
Conclave
2024
as Tremblay
Cliffhanger
1993
as Qualen
Spellbound
2024
as Bolinar (voice)
Leap Year
2010
as Jack Brady
Footloose
1984
as Rev. Shaw Moore
Pet Sematary
2019
as Jud Crandall
Pitch Perfect 3
2017
as Fergus
Daddy's Home 2
2017
as Don
The Pelican Brief
1993
as Smith Keen
Confessions of a Shopaholic
2009
as Edgar West
The Campaign
2012
as Glen Motch
Blow Out
1981
as Burke
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1984
as Lord John Whorfin
2010
1984
as Dr. Walter Curnow
Miss Sloane
2016
as Senator Ronald Sperling
The Rule of Jenny Pen
2025
as Dave Crealy
Obsession
1976
as Robert Lasalle
Bombshell
2019
as Roger Ailes
Sharper
2023
as Richard Hobbes
This Is 40
2012
as Oliver
Twilight Zone: The Movie
1983
as Valentine
New Year's Eve
2011
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
Dreamgirls
2006
as Jerry Harris
Harry and the Hendersons
1987
as George Henderson
Terms of Endearment
1983
as Sam Burns
Ricochet
1991
as Earl Talbott Blake
Memphis Belle
1990
as Bruce Derringer
The Bubble
2022
as Tom the Studio Chairman
Cabrini
2024
as Mayor Gould
The Homesman
2014
as Reverend Alfred Dowd
Shrek 3-D
2004
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
2026
as Self
Raising Cain
1992
as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
A Civil Action
1998
as Judge Walter J. Skinner
All That Jazz
1979
as Lucas Sergeant
Kinsey
2004
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
2000
as Jean-Claude (voice)
The Day After
1983
as Joe Huxley
The World According to Garp
1982
as Roberta Muldoon
Silent Fall
1994
as Dr. Rene Harlinger
Jimpa
2026
as Jimpa
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
2021
as Philip Drummond
Orange County
2002
as Bud Brumder
Late Night
2019
as Walter Lovell
Santa Claus: The Movie
1985
as B.Z.
The Manhattan Project
1986
as John Mathewson
Hollow Point
1996
as Thomas Livingston
The Tuskegee Airmen
1995
as Senator Conyers
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
2004
as Blake Edwards
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection
1999
as Dr. Oscar Charles
Homegrown
1998
as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
2006
as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
Beatriz at Dinner
2017
as Doug Strutt
Night of 100 Stars III
1990
as Self
Resting Place
1986
as Maj. Kendall Laird
Secret Service
1977
as Capt. Thorne
Inside 'Interstellar'
2015
as Self
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
1991
as Leslie Huben
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
1972
as John
Princess Caraboo
1994
as Professor Wilkinson
Out Cold
1989
as Dave
Casting By
2012
as Self
Broadway: The Next Generation
as Self
Show of Titles
2021
as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
2007
as Self
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects
1994
as Self
Traveling Man
1989
as Ben Cluett
My Brother's Keeper
1995
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
On Broadway
2019
as Self
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
2016
as Self - Performer
The Big Fix
1978
as Sam Sebastian
Giant
2026
as Roald Dahl
Rich Kids
1979
as Paul Philips
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party
2001
as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
The Wrong Man
1993
as Phillip Mills
Love, Cheat & Steal
1993
as Paul Harrington
Love Is Strange
2014
as Ben
Johnny Skidmarks
1998
as Sergeant Larry Skovik
Don Quixote
2000
as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
1982
as Mr. Brunner
Mesmerized
1985
as Oliver Thompson
Best of Enemies
2015
as Voice of Gore Vidal
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023
as Self
Shrek Stories
2013
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
1984
as Goldilocks' Father
Not in Front of the Children
1982
as Richard Carruthers
2010 : The Odyssey Continues
1984
as Himself
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest
2014
as Maurice (voice)
Distant Thunder
1988
as Mark Lambert
The Boys
1991
as Artie Margulies
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos
2021
as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
The Tomorrow Man
2019
as Ed Hemsler
A Good Man in Africa
1994
as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
Einstein's Big Idea
2005
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
Timms Valley
2013
as Ol' Gregory Timms
The Oldest Living Graduate
1980
as Clarence
9 Kisses
2014
as Man in Club
The Glitter Dome
1984
as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified
2002
as Self
The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
2009
as God
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
2013
as Self
Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie
1985
as Self
Amazing Stories: The Movie II
1990
as John Walters (archive footage)
Projections of America
2015
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Redwood Curtain
1995
as Laird Riordan
The Pulitzer At 100
2017
as Self
Baby Girl Scott
1987
as Neil Scott
Ivory Hunters
1990
as Robert Carter
Shrek: Once Upon a Time
2011
as Self
Myths and Hymns
2021
95 Worlds and Counting
2000
as Narrator
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like
2018
as Self
GIANT - The Play
2026
as Roald Dahl
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman
2018
as Jud Crandall
Big Blonde
1980
as Herbie Morse
About 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 A… With 210 credits spanning from 1944 to 2026, John Lithgow has appeared in 145 films and 65 TV shows.
Fans searching for John Lithgow movies, John Lithgow filmography, or the latest projects starring John Lithgow can stream many of these titles on Bowood.TV, free and in HD, with no subscription required.
Most Popular John Lithgow Movies
- Interstellar (2014) — as Donald
- Shrek (2001) — as Lord Farquaad (voice)
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) — as Charles Rodman
- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) — as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
- The Accountant (2016) — as Lamar Blackburn
Where to Watch John Lithgow Films
Most John Lithgow movies and series are available to stream on Bowood.TV in full HD, completely free and without signup. Browse the complete filmography above to jump directly to any title. For more films and the latest web series featuring John Lithgow, check our movies catalogue and browse page.