John Lithgow

In 1966, John Lithgow married Jean Taynton, a teacher by profession, and had a son named Ian David Lithgow. Their son is a clinical psychologist and an actor by profession.

An affair between John Lithgow and actress Liv Ullmann created a rift between the actor and his wife, and eventually, they ended their marriage in a divorce in 1980. A year later, Lithgow married Mary Yeager, a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The couple has two children together, a daughter Phoebe and a son Nathan.

John Arthur Lithgow was born in Rochester, New York, on October 19, 1945, to Sarah Jane, an actress by profession, and Arthur Washington Lithgow III, a former producer and director who owned the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. He is of mixed ancestry.

Lithgow went to Harvard College and earned his bachelor’s degree in in history and literature in 1967. Later, he earned a Fulbright Scholarship and went to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

John Lithgow’s career started in the theatre industry. He won the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for his role in the Broadway production of David Storey's ‘The Changing Room’ in 1973. A Year later, he portrayed ‘James’ in Robert Moore’s ‘My Fat Friend’ as well as appeared as ‘Laertes’ in Michael Rudman’s ‘Hamlet’ in 1975.

He appeared alongside Meryl Streep in Arvin Brown’s directorial venture ‘A Memory of Two Mondays’ (also known as ‘27 Wagons Full of Cotton’) in which he portrayed the character of ‘Kenneth’. Lithgow received a nomination at the Tony Awards for Best Actor after his performance in the teleplay ‘Requiem for a Heavyweight,’ and later, another nomination for ‘M. Butterfly’.

In the early and mid 2000s, Lithgow appeared in two critically acclaimed roles in Broadway. The first one was in the Broadway adaptation of the 1957 film ‘Sweet Smell of Success’, in which he portrayed ‘J. J. Hunsecker’ at the Martin Beck Theatre. He won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance.

In 2005, he appeared in the comedy musical ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ by David Yazbek. He was nominated at the Tony Awards for the Best Leading Actor in a Musical. The stage adaptation of American playwright David Auburn’s ‘The Columnist’ earned him another nomination at the Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play.

He has also appeared in a stage adaptation of Arthur Wing Pinero's ‘The Magistrate’, the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's ‘All My Sons’, and Shakespeare's ‘King Lear’ by Daniel Sullivan.

John Lithgow’s first appearance in a film was in 1972, as ‘John’ in a Paul Williams directorial venture ‘Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues’. Four years later, he portrayed ‘Robert Laselle’ in Brian De Palma’s psychological thriller ‘Obsession’.

He then appeared in films like ‘The Big Fix’, ‘All That Jazz’, and ‘Blow Out’ before appearing in George Roy Hill’s comedy-drama film ‘The World According to Garp’ in 1982. He portrayed the character of ‘Roberta Muldoon’ and appeared alongside Robin Williams. He was nominated at the Academy Awards for the Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding performance.

In 1984, Lithgow was again nominated at the Academy Awards for his portrayal of ‘Sam Burns’ in James L. Brooks’ directorial ‘Terms of Endearment’ (1983). The film was an adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s 1975 novel of the same title.

He portrayed the character of a physicist ‘Dr. Emilio Lizardo’ (aka ‘Lord John Whorfin’), whose body was inhabited by an evil alien, in the 1984 American science fiction romantic adventure comedy film ‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension’.

He played the character of ‘Reverend Shaw Moore’, a pastor who talks against the art of dancing in the film ‘Footloose.’ In the sequel of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, which was titled as ‘2010’, Lithgow played ‘Walter Curnow’, a space engineer. He later portrayed an evil toy-maker in the film ‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ in 1985.