A lot of my stage appearances were in the '70s before I got into film and television.
Academics tend to have wonderfully infantile senses of humor.
As far as I can see, every actor in Hollywood thinks what I do on 3rd Rock from the Sun is completely disgraceful!
Audiences are really growing and growing, which, being up on stage, is great to see.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is my 19th Broadway show.
Every comedy needs a bit of audience sweetening.
Everybody's a dreamer.
For me, it's all about changing gears.
For me, working on stage is much more exhausting than all the other mediums, but it's also much more thrilling.
Going head to head with Spamalot is great. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's the glory of the season that there's so many different contenders.
I can't imagine doing an hour-long dramatic series because it's so much work. A sitcom is a wonderful gig. You work from 10 to 4 every day, it's fun, and you get to live at home.
I consider myself a very lucky actor that, approaching 60, I'm still employed and employable.
I don't ever set my cap for a certain role; I just let things happen. If anything, I expect to do nothing.
I don't know why, but early on, I wanted to be an artist.
I don't think we're really rustic, although we go camping a lot and have two horses. I camp with my kids. My wife is from Montana.
I don't want to do anything that's not as good as 3rd Rock.
I draw pictures on a great big board as I sing. I draw all the animals.
I felt that before we began recording anything, it was necessary for us to do some concerts, so we really knew which songs kids responded to. We certainly found out what kids liked and what they didn't!
I find I have to walk a little faster in public these days, but it's very easy to remember when nobody had any idea who I was.
I gave up shame a long time ago.
I have a lot of faith in people.
I have become much more public, but for me, the attention is just a more intense version of what's been going on for years.
I keep looking for things I haven't done yet.
I love the people I'm working with. We have six principal actors, and four of the six were nominated. I feel badly for the other two.
I never get tired of hearing compliments.
I started playing guitar when my first son was born, which makes it 26 years ago. I played for my own kids and then for their classrooms and school benefits.
I think I'm having more fun than the audience, and that's saying a lot.
I thought Sweet Smell of SUccess was a great show. I understand why it wasn't a Broadway hit. It was deeply dark and cynical.
I used to play April Fool's jokes on the cast of 3rd Rock.
I want to find other ways for us performing live here and there, because it's so much fun.
I wanted to give parents some ideas of ways to relate to their kids. Then, if it doesn't work out, they can blame it on me.
I wanted to stay active, and I missed the theater desperately; I hadn't been back to Broadway in 14 years when I did Sweet Smell of Success!
I was in 20 Shakespearean plays by the time I was 20.
I was writing a children's introduction to the symphony. Soon, I realized that I had the text for a book. And once the first one was successful, others followed.
I'd sleep under a Vermeer.
I'm a con artist in that I'm an actor. I make people believe something is real when they know perfectly well it isn't.
I'm a fun father, but not a good father. The hard decisions always went to my wife.
I'm very concerned for the future of the earth and its amazing creatures. We've got to be careful and make sure we don't foul our own nest.
I've found that no matter how absurd we present academia on 3rd Rock, the reality is far funnier.
I've never seen a manatee in the wild. I can't wait.
If it's well written and well directed and you've got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It's very rare.
If you read in front of your kids, it's very likely that they'll become readers, too.
In animation, there's this exhilarating moment of discovery when you see the film and you say, Oh THAT'S what I was doing.
In the past I've been a villain and more recently a comic, so they must have thought I'd be the ideal comic villain.
It seems to be the joke at the very heart of 3rd Rock: There are all sorts of ways for the aliens to say We are from another planet without anyone believing them.
It would have been a disappointment not to be nominated.
It's a very tough time for the playwright. Broadway has become almost a musical comedy theme park with all these long-running shows.
Legitimate theater has a much tougher time on Broadway now, mainly because of the economics.
Look at the darkest hit musicals - Cabaret, West Side Story, Carousel - they are exuberant experiences. They send you out of the theater filled with music.
My only regret is that we didn't have more kids. I came from a family of four kids, but my wife and I just started too late.
My parents were wonderful; very supportive of whatever I wanted to do.
Our ambition is to do big halls, with a big orchestra, for kids. This would not work unless the songs really captivated the kids. They are the whole point.
People who pay $100 to see a Broadway musical want that uplift. You get people to care about these characters and then one kills the other!
Putting together a musical is like the Manhattan Project. It is huge and it is draining, and we actors get all the fun.
Shakespeare is like mother's milk to me.
Take care, be kind, be considerate of other people and other species, and be loving.
The best movie I was ever in was Terms of Endearment. My most unusual role was in Garp.
The Broadway audience is made up of a greater percentage of tourists now. There's not nearly as much variety and danger and challenge in what's being offered.
The museum was a favorite place to bring my own children when they were young.
There needed to be a story idea that would link all of the different animals, so the Museum of Natural History was a logical choice. I love the dioramas of the large mammals and the underwater scenes.
There was an appalling moment last summer when there were only two straight plays on Broadway, each of them performed by a single actor. That just shows how dire it's gotten.
There's a real attention from the audience at how nominated the show is, and that we're the bees knees, which makes everything livelier. It's a good feeling.
There's nothing like spending an evening with an audience every night.
Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.
Up there with my awards, I have a great big statue of Groucho Marx, just to put everything in perspective.
We were completely delighted with the show when we closed in San Diego, and it is improved from what it was then. At this point, it's a matter of cutting jokes that are only half good so that the really good jokes work even better.
What you aspire to on a sitcom is the feeling of live comedy.
When I became interested in theater, my parents were also full of dread because they knew what was in store for me.
When I do theater, it's like coming back to my roots in so many ways.
When you come back to New York after a long period of time, not one, but two generations of actors have come and gone. It shows you how quickly things change.
When you end a successful sitcom, the most sensible thing to do is go back to the theater.
When you're so well known in one mode, it's best to let the larger public forget about you for a while.
With a working wife and two children in school, I used to find myself alone overseas while I was making movies.
Writing children's books is not something that I pursued. It pursued me.
It is rumored that John is going to be in The Smurfs around 2008.
John has released at least three children's song albums.
When John was young, he loved painting.
John is married to Mary Yeager.
John was married to Jean Taynton from 1966 until they were divorced in 1980. Then John got married to Mary Yeager and they have been married since 1981.
John is 6'4" (1.93 m).
John has written at least 11 books, and all of them are mostly directed to children and their families!
He has recorded two CDs: Farkle and Friends and Singing in the Bathtub.
He's a New York Times best-selling author of at least 6 books.
Is spokesman/owner of Lithgow Palooza
John was nominated six times for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy for his role as Dick Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun. He won three of those times in 1996, 1997, and 1999. In total he has been nominated nine times for Emmy awards and won four.
John won a 2002 Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. He played J.J. Hunsecker in the Broadway adaptation of the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success.
Father of Ian Lithgow, playing Leon (one of Dr. Solomon's students) in 3rd Rock from the Sun in almost 50 episodes.
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