John Lithgow

Did You Know?

• Lithgow married Jean Taynton in 1966; they had one son, Ian, and divorced in 1980 after an affair with actress Liv Ullmann.
• He subsequently married UCLA history professor Mary Yeager, with whom he has a son and daughter.
• Lithgow was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2019.

Early life and education

John Lithgow entered the world on October 19, 1945, in Rochester, New York. His mother, Sarah Jane, had been an actress before retiring, while his father, Arthur Lithgow, worked as a theatrical producer and director, overseeing McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. Arthur was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to a European-American family; his own great-grandfather had served as a vice consul and vice commercial agent there. Lithgow is the middle child, the third of four, with an older brother David, an older sister Robin, and a younger sister Sarah Jane Bokaer.

His ancestry is primarily English and Welsh. On his mother’s side, his grandfather Orlo Price and other relatives left Wales in the 1800s to settle in Welsh Hills, Ohio, where they took up fruit farming. While appearing on the show Finding Your Roots, Lithgow learned he is a descendant of eight Mayflower passengers, including colonial governor William Bradford, and is related to the host, Henry Louis Gates Jr., as well as being a distant cousin of painter Frederic Edwin Church, chef Julia Child, author Thomas Pynchon, and actors Alec Baldwin, Clint Eastwood, and Sally Field.

Because his father’s career required constant relocation, Lithgow moved often as a child. He spent his early years in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where activist Coretta Scott King looked after him as a babysitter. His teenage years were divided among Akron (where he lived at Stan Hywet Hall), Lakewood, Ohio, and finally Princeton, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton High School in 1963 and went on to study history and English literature at Harvard College, residing in Adams House and later joining the Harvard Board of Overseers.

A college production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Utopia Limited convinced him to pursue acting. He studied under dramatist Robert Chapman, who directed Harvard’s Loeb Drama Center. Lithgow earned his A.B. magna cum laude in 1967 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After Harvard, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Following his graduation from LAMDA, he became director of the Arts and Literature Department at WBAI, the Pacifica radio station in New York City.

Career

John Lithgow first appeared on screen in 1972’s Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues. Four years later, he played Robert Lasalle, Cliff Robertson’s longtime business partner, in Brian De Palma’s Obsession. His Broadway debut came in 1973 as English rugby player Kenny Kendal in David Storey’s The Changing Room at the Morosco Theatre, a role that earned him a Drama Desk Award and a Tony for Featured Actor in a Play; the production ran for 192 performances following three previews.

The next year, he performed opposite Lynn Redgrave in the comedy My Fat Friend. Lithgow also appeared in Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical 1979 film All That Jazz, portraying a character inspired by Broadway director and choreographer Michael Bennett. From 1978 to 1980, he was heard in ten episodes of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and later voiced Yoda in National Public Radio’s adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Other work

John Lithgow has devoted a significant portion of his career to children’s entertainment, producing both books and music. While serving as conductor for the orchestras of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance Ballet and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, he brought children to attend some of the shows. His published children’s books include titles such as Marsupial Sue, Marsupial Sue Presents "The Runaway Pancake", Lithgow Party Paloozas!: 52 Unexpected Ways to Make a Birthday, Holiday, or Any Day a Celebration for Kids, Carnival of the Animals, A Lithgow Palooza: 101 Ways to Entertain and Inspire Your Kids, I'm a Manatee, Micawber, The Remarkable Farkle McBride, Mahalia Mouse Goes to College, and I Got Two Dogs. He also made a guest appearance on the Canadian children’s program Ants in Your Pants.

His recording career for children began with the 1999 album Singin' in the Bathtub. In June 2002, he released a second children’s album, Farkle and Friends, which was dedicated to the memory of Waylon Jennings, who had died four months earlier. This album served as the musical companion to his book The Remarkable Farkle McBride, a story about a young musical prodigy. It features Lithgow and Bebe Neuwirth on vocals, with the Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra providing accompaniment.

In August 2006, he released his third children’s album, The Sunny Side of the Street, a tribute to Franz Schubert and his first release on the Razor & Tie label. The album includes renditions of classic songs from the Great American Songbook, such as "Getting to Know You" and "Ya Gotta Have Pep". Produced by J. C. Hopkins, it features guest appearances by Madeleine Peyroux, Wayne Knight, Sherie Rene Scott, and Maude Maggart. Lithgow also occasionally performs children’s songs on stage and television, accompanying himself on guitar.

In June 2019, Lithgow played Donald Trump in The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts, a live reading of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The event took place on the altar of New York City’s Riverside Church, was written by Robert Schenkkan, and was narrated by Annette Bening. The cast included Kevin Kline as Mueller, Joel Grey as Jeff Sessions, Jason Alexander as Chris Christie, and Alfre Woodard as Hope Hicks. He also portrayed Rudy Giuliani in a series of sketches on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.