John Arthur Lithgow (born October 19, 1945) is an American actor. Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his diverse work on the stage and screen. He has received numerous accolades including six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Tony Awards. He has also received nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and four Grammy Awards. Lithgow has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001 and he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2005.

In 1973, Lithgow made his Broadway debut in The Changing Room for which he received his first Tony Award. In 1976 Lithgow acted alongside Meryl Streep in the plays 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, A Memory of Two Mondays and Secret Service at The Public Theatre. He received Tony Award nominations for Requiem for a Heavyweight (1985), M. Butterfly (1988), and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005). In 2002, Lithgow received his second Tony Award, this time for a musical, The Sweet Smell of Success. In 2007, he made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut as Malvolio in Twelfth Night. He returned to Broadway in the plays The Columnist (2012), A Delicate Balance (2014), and Hillary and Clinton (2019).

Lithgow 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).[2]

His early screen roles included Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979) and Brian De Palma's Blow Out (1981). He received Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations for his performances in The World According to Garp (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983). He then starred in the films Footloose (1984), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), The Pelican Brief (1993), A Civil Action (1998), Shrek (2001), Kinsey (2004), Dreamgirls (2006), Love Is Strange (2014), Miss Sloane (2016), Beatriz at Dinner (2017), Late Night (2019), and Bombshell (2019).