John Lithgow

John Lithgow is an Oscar-nominated screen and stage actor. Lithgow was raised in a theatrical family and was exposed to the arts from a young age. He studied history and literature in college, graduating from Harvard University in 1967 before earning a scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Lithgow began his career on the stage and made his film debut in Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues in 1972. He later gained recognition with his Academy Award-nominated role in The World According to Garp in 1982, followed by another Oscar nomination for Terms of Endearment in 1983. He became a household name in the late ’90s for his performance as Dick Solomon on NBC’s 3rd Rock from the Sun. He was thrice awarded the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the role.

Over his decades-long career, the actor has appeared in Footloose (1984), Raising Cain (1992), Pet Sematary (2019) and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). He played Winston Churchill in Netflix’s The Crown, a role that won him a Primetime Emmy Award. He also received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Arthur Mitchell, the Trinity Killer, on Dexter.

He has also had a prolific theater career, making his Broadway debut in the 1973 production The Changing Room, which earned him his first Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

In 2025, he was announced to play the role of Dumbledore on HBO’s Harry Potter TV show.

Lithgow married Jean Taynton in 1966. The pair welcomed their son, Ian, in 1972 before they divorced in 1980. He went on to marry UCLA history professor Mary Yeager in 1981. The couple share children Phoebe (born in 1982) and Nathan (born in 1983).