John Lithgow
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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
Credits
Interstellar (2014)
as Donald
Shrek (2001)
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
as Charles Rodman
Conclave (2024)
as Tremblay
The Accountant (2016)
as Lamar Blackburn
The Pelican Brief (1993)
as Smith Keen
Blow Out (1981)
as Burke
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026)
as Self
New Year's Eve (2011)
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
Miss Sloane (2016)
as Senator Ronald Sperling
Pet Sematary (2019)
as Jud Crandall
Dreamgirls (2006)
as Jerry Harris
Ricochet (1991)
as Earl Talbott Blake
Late Night (2019)
as Walter Lovell
Cliffhanger (1993)
as Qualen
Daddy's Home 2 (2017)
as Don
Resting Place (1986)
as Maj. Kendall Laird
Orange County (2002)
as Bud Brumder
This Is 40 (2012)
as Oliver
Bombshell (2019)
as Roger Ailes
Princess Caraboo (1994)
as Professor Wilkinson
Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
as Edgar West
Spellbound (2024)
as Bolinar (voice)
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
as Fergus
2010 (1984)
as Dr. Walter Curnow
Leap Year (2010)
as Jack Brady
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
as Valentine
Footloose (1984)
as Rev. Shaw Moore
Sharper (2023)
as Richard Hobbes
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
as George Henderson
9 Kisses (2014)
as Man in Club
The Campaign (2012)
as Glen Motch
Shrek 3-D (2004)
as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
All That Jazz (1979)
as Lucas Sergeant
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000)
as Jean-Claude (voice)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
as Lord John Whorfin
The Homesman (2014)
as Reverend Alfred Dowd
Terms of Endearment (1983)
as Sam Burns
The Bubble (2022)
as Tom the Studio Chairman
The Day After (1983)
as Joe Huxley
A Civil Action (1998)
as Judge Walter J. Skinner
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
as B.Z.
Kinsey (2004)
as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
Obsession (1976)
as Robert Lasalle
Beatriz at Dinner (2017)
as Doug Strutt
Memphis Belle (1990)
as Bruce Derringer
The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025)
as Dave Crealy
Show of Titles (2021)
as "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
Cabrini (2024)
as Mayor Gould
Raising Cain (1992)
as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
The World According to Garp (1982)
as Roberta Muldoon
Einstein's Big Idea (2005)
as Narrator (voice) U.S. edition
Distant Thunder (1988)
as Mark Lambert
Happy Birthday, Bugs! 50 Looney Years (1990)
as Self
Officer Buckle and Gloria (1997)
as Narrator (voice)
Buckaroo Banzai Declassified (2002)
as Self
Jimpa (2026)
as Jimpa
Stallone on the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger (1993)
as Self
Giant (2026)
as Roald Dahl
The Glitter Dome (1984)
as Sgt. Marty Wellborn
Redwood Curtain (1995)
as Laird Riordan
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos (2021)
as Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
Love Is Strange (2014)
as Ben
Silent Fall (1994)
as Dr. Rene Harlinger
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)
as Senator Conyers
The Amazing Bone (1987)
as Narrator
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
as Blake Edwards
Sangre (2006)
as Cafe chef and owner
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special (1999)
as (archive footage)
Shrek: Once Upon a Time (2011)
as Self
The Tomorrow Man (2019)
as Ed Hemsler
A Good Man in Africa (1994)
as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
Hollow Point (1996)
as Thomas Livingston
Footloose: A Modern Musical (2004)
as Self
The Manhattan Project (1986)
as John Mathewson
Homegrown (1998)
as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway (2007)
as Self
The Big Fix (1978)
as Sam Sebastian
Inside 'Interstellar' (2015)
as Self
Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1984)
as Goldilocks' Father
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC (2016)
as Self - Performer
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic (2023)
as Self
The Oldest Living Graduate (1980)
as Clarence
Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party (2001)
as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
Casting By (2012)
as Self
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)
as Leslie Huben
Night of 100 Stars III (1990)
as Self
Baby Girl Scott (1987)
as Neil Scott
Broadway: The Next Generation (—)
as Self
Big Blonde (1980)
as Herbie Morse
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes (2021)
as Philip Drummond
Best of Enemies (2015)
as Voice of Gore Vidal
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982)
as Mr. Brunner
The Jungle Bunch 2: The Great Treasure Quest (2014)
as Maurice (voice)
Don Quixote (2000)
as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
Timms Valley (2013)
as Ol' Gregory Timms
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays (2006)
as René Gallimard (segment "M. Butterfly")
Tales from the Crypt: The Robert Zemeckis Collection (1999)
as Dr. Oscar Charles
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love (2013)
as Self
Love, Cheat & Steal (1993)
as Paul Harrington
Mom, the Wolfman and Me (1980)
as Wally
Amazing Stories: The Movie II (1990)
as John Walters
The Pulitzer At 100 (2017)
as Self
Lord John (2015)
Actor
Not in Front of the Children (1982)
as Richard Carruthers
Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn (2009)
as Narrator
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen (1996)
as Narrator
Johnny Skidmarks (1998)
as Sergeant Larry Skovik
2010 : The Odyssey Continues (1984)
as Himself
Pet Sematary: The Tale of Timmy Baterman (2018)
as Jud Crandall
The Country Girl (1974)
as Paul Unger
Out Cold (1989)
as Dave
Chez Bob (2022)
Actor
Shrek Stories (2013)
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Myths and Hymns (2021)
Actor
My Brother's Keeper (1995)
as Tom Bradley / Bob Bradley
On Broadway (2019)
as Self
The Wrong Man (1993)
as Phillip Mills
The Boys (1991)
as Artie Margulies
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects (1994)
as Self
Santa Claus: The Making of the Movie (1985)
as Self
Art Happens Here with John Lithgow (2024)
as Self
Mesmerized (1985)
as Oliver Thompson
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like (2018)
as Self
Rich Kids (1979)
as Paul Philips
The Great Robot Race: The DARPA Grand Challenge (2006)
as Narrator
National Theatre Live: The Magistrate (2013)
as Posket
Traveling Man (1989)
as Ben Cluett
The Country Mouse & the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale (1993)
as Alexander (voice)
Car of the Future (2008)
as Narrator
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972)
as John
Ivory Hunters (1990)
as Robert Carter
Bark, George (2003)
Actor
Dogs and More Dogs (2004)
as Narrator
The Macabre World of Lavender Williams (2009)
as God
John Lithgow's Kid-Sized Concert (1990)
Actor
Give My Regards to Broadway (2020)
as Self
Hickory Dickory Doc (2017)
as Himself
They All Saw a Cat (2017)
Actor
Secret Service (1977)
as Capt. Thorne
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1993)
as Narrator
95 Worlds and Counting (2000)
as Narrator
The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts (2019)
as President Donald J. Trump
Ode to Joy: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (2016)
as Narrator
Projections of America (2015)
as Self - Narrator (voice)