As of July 2026, John Lithgow is best known for Dexter and How I Met Your Mother. Find every show and movie John Lithgow has starred in — and where to watch them — below.
John Lithgow

John Lithgow

Actor Born 1945 Rochester, New York, USA 11 TV Shows 8 Movies

John Arthur Lithgow (born October 19, 1945) is an American actor. He studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his diverse work on stage and screen. He has received numerous accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Grammy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award.

Lithgow won two Tony Awards, his first for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut in The Changing Room (1972) and his second for Best Actor in a Musical for the musical Sweet Smell of Success (2002). He was Tony-nominated for Requiem for a Heavyweight (1985), M. Butterfly (1988), and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005). He has acted in the plays The Columnist (2012), A Delicate Balance (2014), and Hillary and Clinton (2019). He portrayed Roald Dahl in the play Giant on the West End, for which he was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor.

He 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).

On film, he has received two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor nominations for his roles as a transgender ex-football player in The World According to Garp (1982) and a lonely banker in Terms of Endearment (1983). He also acted in All That Jazz (1979), Blow Out (1981), Footloose (1984), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), A Civil Action (1998), Shrek (2001), Kinsey (2004), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Love Is Strange (2014), Interstellar (2014), Late Night (2019), Bombshell (2019), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and Conclave (2024).

John Lithgow has built a filmography of 19 credits over a career spanning from 1994 to 2024.

John Lithgow's most notable role to date came in Interstellar (2014), where he played Donald. He also appeared in Shrek (2001) as Lord Farquaad (voice). Most recently appeared in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) as Charles Rodman.

Fans wanting to catch up on John Lithgow's work can find exactly where his shows and movies are streaming below — and TV Butler Pro makes it effortless to keep track of them all. Just search the title, and Butler finds it instantly, tells you which service has it, and remembers what you've already watched.

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📺 John Lithgow's TV Shows

Dexter
Arthur Mitchell
2006
How I Met Your Mother
Jerry Whittaker
2005
The Crown
Winston Churchill
2016
3rd Rock from the Sun
Dick Solomon
1996
Perry Mason
Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
2020
Trial & Error
Larry Henderson
2017
The Old Man
Harold Harper
2022
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
The White Rabbit (voice)
2013
Prohibition
Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice)
2011
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
James Roosevelt (voice)
2014
World War II: When Lions Roared
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1994

🎬 John Lithgow's Movies

Interstellar
Donald
2014
Shrek
Lord Farquaad (voice)
2001
Killers of the Flower Moon
Prosecutor Peter Leaward
2023
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Charles Rodman
2011
The Accountant
Lamar Blackburn
2016
Conclave
Tremblay
2024
Spellbound
Bolinar (voice)
2024
Dreamgirls
Jerry Harris
2006

📝 Created / Written by John Lithgow

The Rule of Jenny Pen
Executive Producer
2025
Don Quixote
Executive Producer
2000

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