John Lithgow

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Birthday:

19 October 1945, Rochester, New York, USA

Birth Name:

John Arthur Lithgow

Height:

193 cm

If "born to the theater" has meaning in determining a person's life path, then John Lithgow is a prime example of this truth. He was born in Rochester, New York, to Sarah Jane (Price), an actress, and Arthur Washington Lithgow III, who was both a theatrical producer and director. John's father was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, where the Anglo-American Lithgow family had lived for several generations.John moved frequently as a child, while his father founded and managed local and college theaters and Shakespeare festivals throughout the Midwest of the United States. Not until he was 16, and his father became head of the McCarter Theater in Princeton New Jersey, did the family settle down. But for John, the theater was still not a career. He won a scholarship to Harvard University, where he finally caught the acting bug (as well as found a wife). Harvard was followed by a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Returning from London, his rigorous dramatic training stood him in good stead, and a distinguished career on Broadway gave him one Tony Award for "The Changing Room", a second nomination in 1985 for "Requiem For a Heavyweight", and a third in 1988 for "M. Butterfly". But with critical acclaim came personal confusion, and in the mid 1970s, he and his wife divorced. He entered therapy, and in 1982, his life started in a new direction, the movies - he received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982). A second Oscar nomination followed for Terms of Endearment (1983), and he met a UCLA economics professor who became his second wife. As the decade of the 1990s came around, he found that he was spending too much time on location, and another career move brought him to television in the hugely successful series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996). This production also played a role in bringing him back together with the son from his first marriage, Ian Lithgow, who has a regular role in the series as a dimwitted student. Show less «

[on the constant time-slot changes and ultimate cancellation of 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996)] If NBC had set out to ruin it, they couldn't h...Show more »

[on the constant time-slot changes and ultimate cancellation of 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996)] If NBC had set out to ruin it, they couldn't have done a better job. They kept trying to use us as a weapon instead of a show to be taken care of. It would have been nice to have stayed a big hit, but I'd rather be a great show that nobody was watching than a lousy show that was a big hit, which is the case for most of the others. Show less «

In general, my basic rule of thumb is just act in things you would want to see yourself in. I have a taste for all kinds of movies. Usually,...Show more »

In general, my basic rule of thumb is just act in things you would want to see yourself in. I have a taste for all kinds of movies. Usually, it's a question of whether it will be fun, whether I respect the people behind it, whether I would like to work with them. I'm sure I'm a serious-minded actor, but I still value the frivolity of acting. It's a real exuberant, entertaining thing to do. I never lose track of that. Show less «

I've had parallel careers in the theatre and in movies. In the theatre, I often play characters with a strong sense of innocence who aren't ...Show more »

I've had parallel careers in the theatre and in movies. In the theatre, I often play characters with a strong sense of innocence who aren't as intelligent as I am. The reason: my size. I seem sort of big and good-natured on stage. It would be too much for a big man to play a forbidding character on stage. So I play big people who are fairly gentle. It's a wonderful thing to build a career on. What I offer to movie-makers is that I can put a tremendous amount of theatrical background and technical equipment at their disposal. I can make believable the over-the-top characters. Show less «

[from a 1984 interview] My career just happened to me. I didn't manage it. My plate is full all the time, but I never have the opportunity t...Show more »

[from a 1984 interview] My career just happened to me. I didn't manage it. My plate is full all the time, but I never have the opportunity to choose from ten parts. I do turn down junk. I've played important parts in movies but I haven't yet played the person the story is about. The joy is in the work. You can get too hung up on where you are. I'm not preoccupied with the desire to be top banana, but I do want to play bigger parts. Show less «

We deal in very volatile chemicals. We're in the business of using real emotions to bring pretend emotions to life. We all have our secrets ...Show more »

We deal in very volatile chemicals. We're in the business of using real emotions to bring pretend emotions to life. We all have our secrets and we all have our deceptions. Acting, at its best, is all about deceiving people, and that makes it all the more interesting to us. Show less «

One of the things you learn as an actor is that human beings are capable of almost anything. I'm sort of in the business of illustrating tha...Show more »

One of the things you learn as an actor is that human beings are capable of almost anything. I'm sort of in the business of illustrating that fact. Show less «

My sense of myself is that I'm a character actor, and character actors are ready, willing and able to do anything, to be totally different f...Show more »

My sense of myself is that I'm a character actor, and character actors are ready, willing and able to do anything, to be totally different from themselves. That's my job, to be ready. I'm some kind of first responder. Show less «

No bad guy thinks he's a bad guy. He thinks he's a good guy.

[on working with Saul Zaentz on At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)] Saul loves being answerable to nobody. That's the most extraordina...Show more »

[on working with Saul Zaentz on At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)] Saul loves being answerable to nobody. That's the most extraordinary thing about him. The dailies didn't get sent anywhere for anybody else's approval and cost overruns weren't monitored by a bunch of executives thousand of miles away. He owns it all. He does it the way he wants it. It's incredible how that affects every aspect of production. I've never really worked with anyone like him. Being on the set, playing hearts with Saul, I realised the secret to his success: he can spot everyone's strengths and weaknesses right away. He was a killer. He'd shoot the moon three out of every four games. I don't know if it was the giant bugs or the humidity, but I couldn't sleep for weeks. We had terrible weather and horrible actor-director arguments, but Saul was unflappable. He went through all the same hardships we did, but he behaved as if there was no other place he'd rather be. Show less «

[on the character usually played by his favorite French comic actor Jacques Tati] He was always a bit oblivious, just a little bit startled ...Show more »

[on the character usually played by his favorite French comic actor Jacques Tati] He was always a bit oblivious, just a little bit startled by everything, and acted in a completely rational but inappropriate way to whatever happened. Show less «