John Lithgow Filmography: Movies and Television Credits

This John Lithgow filmography covers 69 movie titles and 23 television titles from the available cast credits. Multiple roles in the same title are grouped together. It is a selection of screen credits, rather than a complete record of every performance. Credits may include acting, voice work, uncredited roles and appearances as themselves.

John Lithgow movies by release year

The years below are film release years, not filming dates.

• Obsession (1976) as Robert Lasalle
• The Big Fix (1978) as Sam Sebastian
• All That Jazz (1979) as Lucas Sergeant
• Blow Out (1981) as Burke
• The World According to Garp (1982) as Roberta Muldoon
• Terms of Endearment (1983) as Sam Burns
• The Day After (1983) as Joe Huxley
• Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) as Valentine
• 2010 (1984) as Dr. Walter Curnow
• Footloose (1984) as Rev. Shaw Moore
• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) as Lord John Whorfin
• Mesmerized (1985) as Oliver Thompson
• Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) as B.Z.
• The Manhattan Project (1986) as John Mathewson
• Harry and the Hendersons (1987) as George Henderson
• Out Cold (1989) as Dave
• Memphis Belle (1990) as Bruce Derringer
• At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) as Leslie Huben
• Ricochet (1991) as Earl Talbott Blake
• Raising Cain (1992) as Carter Nix / Cain / Dr. Nix / Josh / Margo
• Cliffhanger (1993) as Qualen
• Love, Cheat & Steal (1993) as Paul Harrington
• The Pelican Brief (1993) as Smith Keen
• The Wrong Man (1993) as Phillip Mills
• A Good Man in Africa (1994) as Arthur Fanshawe, British High Commissioner
• Princess Caraboo (1994) as Professor Wilkinson
• Silent Fall (1994) as Dr. Rene Harlinger
• The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) as Senator Conyers
• Hollow Point (1996) as Thomas Livingston
• A Civil Action (1998) as Judge Walter J. Skinner
• Homegrown (1998) as Malcolm / Robert Stockman
• Don Quixote (2000) as Don Quixote de La Mancha / Alonso Quixano
• Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) as Jean-Claude (voice)
• Shrek (2001) as Lord Farquaad (voice)
• Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party (2001) as Lord Farquaad (singing voice)
• Orange County (2002) as Bud Brumder
• Kinsey (2004) as Alfred Seguine Kinsey
• Shrek 3-D (2004) as Ghost of Farquaad (voice)
• The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) as Blake Edwards
• Dreamgirls (2006) as Jerry Harris
• Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) as Edgar West
• Leap Year (2010) as Jack Brady
• New Year's Eve (2011) as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) as Charles Rodman
• Casting By (2012) as Self
• The Campaign (2012) as Glen Motch
• This Is 40 (2012) as Oliver
• Shrek Stories (2013) as Lord Farquaad (voice)
• Interstellar (2014) as Donald
• Love Is Strange (2014) as Ben
• The Homesman (2014) as Reverend Alfred Dowd
• Best of Enemies (2015) as Voice of Gore Vidal
• Miss Sloane (2016) as Senator Ronald Sperling
• The Accountant (2016) as Lamar Blackburn
• Beatriz at Dinner (2017) as Doug Strutt
• Daddy's Home 2 (2017) as Don
• Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) as Fergus
• Bombshell (2019) as Roger Ailes
• Late Night (2019) as Walter Lovell
• Pet Sematary (2019) as Jud Crandall
• The Tomorrow Man (2019) as Ed Hemsler
• The Bubble (2022) as Tom the Studio Chairman
• Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) as Prosecutor Peter Leaward
• Sharper (2023) as Richard Hobbes
• Cabrini (2024) as Mayor Gould
• Conclave (2024) as Tremblay
• Spellbound (2024) as Bolinar (voice)
• The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025) as Dave Crealy
• Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (2026) as Self

John Lithgow television roles and appearances

Television titles are listed alphabetically. An appearance date is included only where verified for John Lithgow; a programme's premiere year does not establish when a performer appeared in it.

• 30 Rock as John Lithgow
• 3rd Rock from the Sun as Dick Solomon
• Amazing Stories as John Walters
• Cosby as John Lithgow
• Dexter as Arthur Mitchell
• Dexter: New Blood as Arthur Mitchell
• Dexter: Resurrection as Arthur Mitchell
• Faerie Tale Theatre as Goldilocks' Father
• Frasier as Madman Martinez (voice)
• Great Performances as Capt. Thorne
• How I Met Your Mother as Jerry Whittaker
• James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction as Self
• NOVA as Narrator
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland as The White Rabbit (voice)
• Perry Mason as Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
• Prohibition as Reader / H.L. Mencken (voice)
• Tales from the Crypt as Dr. Oscar Charles
• The Crown as Winston Churchill
• The Old Man as Harold Harper
• The Oscars as Self - Presenter
• The Roosevelts: An Intimate History as James Roosevelt (voice)
• The Simpsons as Gus (voice); John Lithgow (voice)
• Trial & Error as Larry Henderson

Credit information: TMDB, with additional sources listed below where used. The titles shown here do not establish the beginning or end of John Lithgow's career, and omissions should not be treated as evidence that a credit does not exist.