Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#294
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
John Lithgow represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 50 years in, and John is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
John Lithgow appears in 47 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without John. Theatrical scale, calibrated down to the millimetre the camera needs. Interstellar is the clearest case: a film rated 9.4 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for documentary, drama, horror. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Eliot Rausch, James Ashcroft, Alejandro Monteverde and others, John Lithgow helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Interstellar (2014) as Donald · Interstellar (2014) as Donald · On Broadway (2019) as Self
Career snapshot
Ranked #294 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
47
1976–2026
Career length
54 yrs
Active since 1972
Academy Awards
0
Competitive wins
Oscar nominations
2
Career total
Highest Nutevio score
9.4
Interstellar
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.7
On Broadway
Most frequent director
Judd Apatow
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Judd Apatow
Most common genre
Drama
21 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.5
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2010s
6.9 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Bombshell, Late Night, Pet Sematary — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.9
Across 16 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
1 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Bombshell, Late Night, Pet Sematary.
Most productive era
2010s
16 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.61 film | 6.71 film | 6.44 films | 6.43 films | 7.38 films | 7.74 films |
| Action | — | — | 6.43 films | — | 7.41 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.61 film | 7.02 films | 6.43 films | — | 7.32 films | 6.83 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.22 films | — | 6.64 films | 6.27 films | 4.74 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | — | — | 9.41 film | — |
| Crime | — | 7.21 film | 6.32 films | — | 7.11 film | 7.22 films |
| Romance | — | 6.32 films | — | 6.51 film | 6.23 films | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | — | 5.81 film | 6.21 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
1972Working from 1972
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
1976Obsession
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Robert Lasalle.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2014Interstellar
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Jimpa
The current state of the argument, as Jimpa.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
47 of 47 films
as Donald
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Donald
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Directed by Andrew Adamson
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 60 titles · 61 total credits · active 1974–2026
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
2026 · Self
Jimpa
2026 · Jimpa
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind The Magic
2026 · TV · Himself
Harry Potter
2026 · TV · Albus Dumbledore
The Rule of Jenny Pen
2025 · Dave Crealy · Executive Producer
Dexter: Resurrection
2025 · TV · Arthur Mitchell
Cabrini
2024 · Mayor Gould
Conclave
2024 · Tremblay
Spellbound
2024 · Bolinar (voice)
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023 · Prosecutor Peter Leaward
Sharper
2023 · Richard Hobbes
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023 · Self
Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled
2023 · TV · Self
Chez Bob
2022 · Actor
The Bubble
2022 · Tom the Studio Chairman
The Old Man
2022 · TV · Harold Harper
Show of Titles
2021 · "There's No Business Like Show Business" Performer
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
2021 · Philip Drummond
Emily @ the Edge of Chaos
2021 · Sir Isaac Newton (voice)
Dexter: New Blood
2021 · TV · Arthur Mitchell
Perry Mason
2020 · TV · Elias Birchard 'E.B.' Jonathan
Bombshell
2019 · Roger Ailes
Late Night
2019 · Walter Lovell
Pet Sematary
2019 · Jud Crandall
The defining work
#1
Donald
Interstellar (2014)
Performance score9.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Donald gives John Lithgow a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jimpa
Jimpa (2026)
Performance score8.7
Jimpa asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jimpa is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
On Broadway (2019)
Performance score8.4
On Broadway asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Donald
Interstellar (2014)
Performance score8.4
Interstellar asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Donald is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Donald
Start here. Interstellar is the clearest statement of what John Lithgow does — accessible, 169 minutes, and rated 9.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet John at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Shrek (2001)
Keeps the adventure register of Interstellar but asks for a colder reading of it.
Interstellar (2014)
Keeps the adventure register of Shrek but asks for a colder reading of it.
On Broadway (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Interstellar — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Jimpa (2026)
Same director as On Broadway, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Brian De Palma
Director
2 films together
Notably Blow Out
Bill Condon
Director
2 films together
Notably Dreamgirls
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably Interstellar
Jay Roach
Director
2 films together
Notably Bombshell
Judd Apatow
Director
2 films together
Notably This Is 40
Peter Hyams
Director
1 film together
Notably 2010
W.D. Richter
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Herbert Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably Footloose
William Dear
Director
1 film together
Notably Harry and the Hendersons
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Memphis Belle
Russell Mulcahy
Director
1 film together
Notably Ricochet
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together
Notably The Pelican Brief
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Cliffhanger
Steven Zaillian
Director
1 film together
Notably A Civil Action
Andrew Adamson
Director
1 film together
Notably Shrek
Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Orange County
Simon J. Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably Shrek 3-D
P.J. Hogan
Director
1 film together
Notably Confessions of a Shopaholic
Anand Tucker
Director
1 film together
Notably Leap Year
Rupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together
Notably Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Garry Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably New Year's Eve
Tommy Lee Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably The Homesman
Gavin O'Connor
Director
1 film together
Notably The Accountant
Kevin Kölsch
Director
1 film together
Notably Pet Sematary
Nisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together
Notably Late Night
Andy Fisher
Director
1 film together
Notably Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
Lonny Price
Director
1 film together
Notably Show of Titles
Russell Norman
Director
1 film together
Notably Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
Benjamin Caron
Director
1 film together
Notably Sharper
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Killers of the Flower Moon
Vicky Jenson
Director
1 film together
Notably Spellbound
Edward Berger
Director
1 film together
Notably Conclave
Alejandro Monteverde
Director
1 film together
Notably Cabrini
James Ashcroft
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rule of Jenny Pen
Eliot Rausch
Director
1 film together
Notably Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic
Matthew McConaughey
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Anne Hathaway
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Jessica Chastain
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Casey Affleck
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Wes Bentley
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Topher Grace
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Mackenzie Foy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Ellen Burstyn
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Bill Irwin
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
David Gyasi
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Timothée Chalamet
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 9.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
InterstellarBrian De Palma
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Blow OutBill Condon
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
DreamgirlsJay Roach
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
BombshellJudd Apatow
Director
2 films together · 5.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
This Is 40Andrew Adamson
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ShrekEliot Rausch
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the MagicAlejandro Monteverde
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CabriniAndy Fisher
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Killers of the Flower MoonRupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rise of the Planet of the ApesEdward Berger
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ConclaveGavin O'Connor
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The AccountantRussell Norman
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of MagicBenjamin Caron
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SharperAnand Tucker
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Leap YearHerbert Ross
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FootloosePeter Hyams
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
2010Vicky Jenson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpellboundAlan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Pelican BriefMichael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Memphis BelleTommy Lee Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HomesmanP.J. Hogan
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Confessions of a ShopaholicSteven Zaillian
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Civil ActionRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CliffhangerNisha Ganatra
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Late NightWilliam Dear
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harry and the HendersonsJames Ashcroft
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Rule of Jenny PenRussell Mulcahy
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RicochetSimon J. Smith
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shrek 3-DJake Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Orange CountyW.D. Richter
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th DimensionGarry Marshall
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
New Year's EveKevin Kölsch
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pet SemataryLonny Price
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Show of TitlesSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2015
Interstellar
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Interstellar
as Donald
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Cabrini
as Mayor Gould
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Interstellar
as Donald
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
New Year's Eve
as Jonathan Cox (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Interstellar
as Donald
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. John Lithgow has known it for a long time.”
“Do not go gentle into that good night.”
“Murph, I'm coming back.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.3 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #94 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | 0 | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | 2 | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.4 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Physical performance | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2014–2014 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Donald — Interstellar | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Interstellar | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Interstellar
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Best Time Travel Movies, Adventure Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Best Space Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Matthew McConaughey · Anne Hathaway · Michael Caine · Jessica Chastain · Casey Affleck · Wes Bentley · Topher Grace
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
50 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Editor's Icon
Awarded
Named by our desk for a body of work we return to when we need to explain what screen acting is for.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
21 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Interstellar
as Donald
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Interstellar
as Donald
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
as Self
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Obsession
as Robert Lasalle
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Interstellar
as Donald
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Cliffhanger
as Qualen
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Shrek
as Lord Farquaad (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Interstellar
as Donald
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 9 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
theme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Time Travel Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Adventure Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Space Movies
Features Interstellar at #2
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
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Have your say
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