About John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow ( LITH-goh; 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 seven Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and three Tony Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Grammy Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Lithgow has won three Tony Awards, his first for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut portraying a rugby player in The Changing Room (1972), his second for Best Actor in a Musical for playing a fearful columnist in Sweet Smell of Success (2002), and his third for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Roald Dahl in Giant (2026). He was Tony-nominated for Requiem for a Heavyweight (1985), M. Butterfly (1988), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005), and The Columnist (2012). He has also acted in A Delicate Balance (2014), and Hillary and Clinton (2019). On television, Lithgow starred as Dick Solomon in the NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001), winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. He received further Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series playing Arthur Mitchell in the drama Dexter (2009) and for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the Netflix drama The Crown (2016–2019). He also starred in the HBO drama series Perry Mason (2020) and the FX thriller series The Old Man (2022–2024). In film, Lithgow has received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his roles as a transgender ex-football player in The World According to Garp (1982) and as 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). Lithgow has 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 Sweet Smell of Success (2002). On the show Finding Your Roots, Lithgow discovered that he is a descendant of eight Mayflower passengers, including colonial governor William Bradford. Upon graduation from Harvard, Lithgow won a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In the West End, he portrayed Roald Dahl in the play Giant (2024), for which he won the 2025 Laurence Olivier Best Actor Award. He has received numerous accolades including seven 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.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.