John Lithgow

A versatile character player who was a familiar face in theater, film and on television, actor John Lithgow proved adept with a wide range of material spanning drama, comedy, science-fiction, family fare and thrillers. With a vast array of talents from which to draw, Lithgow ironically had difficulty translating his acting versatility into stardom. He had his start in the theater, performing in numerous Shakespeare productions before making the jump to features in the early 1970s; most notably as a relentless assassin in the Brian De Palma thriller “Blow Out” (1981). But it was his Oscar-nominated performance as a former football player-turned-transvestite in “The World According to Garp” (1982) that propelled him into the limelight. Ever since that time, Lithgow moved smoothly from stage to screen, performing in a variety of different roles, though he occasionally was typecast as an all-too-evil villain in thrillers like “Ricochet” (1991) and “Cliffhanger” (1993). He became surprise household name on television with the acclaimed sitcom “3rd Rock from the Sun” (NBC, 1996-2001), which earned the actor three Emmy awards and a lifetime of recognition.