TELLER OF TALES
John Lithgow at the American Airlines Theater in "Stories by Heart," which runs through March 4.
I AM ALWAYS ON John Lithgow’s side. No matter what he says. I remember sitting in a Midtown Manhattan movie theater in 1983, watching "Terms of Endearment." His character, whom we hadn't seen before, was standing in a supermarket line and gallantly chastised a cashier for being rude to a frazzled young mom (Debra Winger) who was a little short of cash.
Sam (Lithgow): "There’s no reason to treat her badly."
Cashier: “I don’t think I was treating her badly.”
Sam (Lithgow): “Then you must be from New York.”
ADULTERER
Lithgow at an assignation with Debra Winger's character in "Terms of Endearment" (1983).
The whole audience had a good laugh. What a lovable guy! It took us a few seconds to remember that we were the objects of his insult. But Lithgow’s lush sincerity outweighed any offense; if he thinks New Yorkers suck, we probably do.
If you get to see “John Lithgow: Stories by Heart” at the American Airlines Theater, you will learn a bit about him personally. This storytelling play is dedicated to his father. But just for fun, here’s a bunch more.
For a child of privilege who has played a space alien, a distinguished wartime prime minister and a powerful Broadway columnist who viciously ruins his sister's life, he seems nice.
BORN Rochester, N.Y., Oct. 19, 1945. Age 72. (But his family moved around a lot. He did a lot of his growing up in Ohio and New Jersey.)
EDUCATION Princeton High School, Harvard University, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
BACKSTABBER
Arthur Lithgow, right, as Brutus in a 1950s production of "Julius Caesar." That's the actor and director Ellis Rabb on the left. Lithgow's son John was born in 1945.
STAGE CRED (Born-in-a-Trunk Dept.) His father, Arthur Lithgow, was a major figure in American regional theater, a founder of Shakespeare festivals and, from 1963 to 1972, artistic director of the McCarter Theater in Princeton. His mother, the former Sarah Jane Price, was an actress, writer and teacher, whose Antioch College obituary praised her for having given great cast parties.
GOOD INFLUENCE
Coretta Scott, when she was an Antioch College student and a baby sitter for the Lithgow family.
MOST MEMORABLE BABY SITTER Coretta Scott King, when she was Coretta Scott, a college student at Antioch in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The elder Lithgow was a professor and founded Shakespeare Under the Stars there.
AWARDS How much time do you have? (And this is only a partial list.)
•Two Tonys. “The Changing Room” in 1973 and “The Sweet Smell of Success” in 2002, plus four more nominations.
•Six Emmys, three of them for his 1990s sitcom “3rd Rock From the Sun” and his most recent (2017) for playing Winston Churchill in “The Crown.”
•No Oscars yet, but back-to-back nominations for “The World According to Garp” (1982) and “Terms of Endearment” (1983).
POTHEAD
Lithgow, foreground, with Robert F. Lyons in "Dealing" (1972), his film debut.
MOVIE DEBUT: 1972 As a pot dealer with lots of hair (as was the fashion) in “Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues.” Lithgow, 27, played a Harvard theater type who enlists a friend to help transport a large amount of marijuana from coast to coast. They get busted. His co-stars included Charles Durning and Barbara Hershey.
HUSBAND
Lithgow and Mary Yeager have been married since 1981.
BROADWAY DEBUT: 1973 As an injured rugby player in “The Changing Room.” He won the Tony for best featured actor in a play.
TV DEBUT: 1974 As a kindhearted young playwright in a TV-movie version of “The Country Girl,” starring Jason Robards, Shirley Knight and George Grissom.
PERSONAL LIFE He married his second wife, Mary Yeager, a U.C.L.A. history professor, in 1981. He has three grown children.
BEST THING ABOUT MARRIAGE It gives you permission to be "your most petulant self," he told the London newspaper The Telegraph in 2015. "There is somebody who allows you to be a baby, to be spoiled, to be mean-spirited, to be angry. You can be all these things because you're safe."
MOVIES HE'S KNOWN FOR
• “The World According to Garp” (1982), as Roberta Muldoon (above), a gentle giant of a transsexual woman. The role offered him another memorable dialogue exchange: Garp (Robin Williams) tells Roberta that she looks familiar. Roberta asks if he's a football fan, then explains, “I was a tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles.”
• “Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983), reprising the role William Shatner played on the original midcentury TV series, as an airline passenger who can't convince anyone else that there's a homicidal gremlin on the wing in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”
• “Harry and the Hendersons” (1987), as a regular all-American family man who adopts Bigfoot. After accidentally almost killing him.
• “Footloose” (1984), as the small-town minister who bans dancing.
TORTURER
Lithgow was the voice of Lord Farquaad in "Shrek."
MOVIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED HIM IN
• “All That Jazz,” (1979), as the rival director-choreographer who resents Joe Gideon (the Bob Fosse character played by Roy Scheider). Lithgow's character is said to have been based on Michael Bennett.
• "Shrek" (2001), as the voice of Lord Farquaad, the square-jawed, heavy-footed, vertically challenged aristocrat who tortures the Gingerbread Man.
• “Rugrats in Paris: The Movie” (2000), as the voice of Jean-Claude, an assistant villain at a European theme park.
• “Pitch Perfect 3” (2017), as Fergus, Fat Amy's estranged father, a yacht-loving criminal who cares about Amy (Rebel Wilson) only for her offshore bank account.
• "Beatriz at Dinner" (2017), as a heartless capitalist dinner guest whom Pénélope Cruz's character would like to kill. And probably should.
HOW HE FEELS ABOUT BEING OLD "I’m very aware of how lucky I am to be this viable at this age. And I’m just grabbing for all the gusto I can get."
(From a PBS interview with Jeffrey Brown in January 2018.)
THE BEST THING HE'S EVER DONE (IN HIS OPINION) The "Twilight Zone" movie.
(From an interview with Paula Span of The Washington Post. But that was back in 1984.)
SELF-REVIEW/HOW HE HANDLES THE STORIES IN "STORIES BY HEART" "I perform the hell out of them."
(On "Late Night With Seth Meyers")
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