ohn Lithgow was born into a theatrical family. His father, Arthur, worked as a producer and director and his mother, Sarah Jane, acted. Lithgow moved with his family several times for his father's work, and it was in one of his father's productions that a 6-year-old Lithgow first took the stage. But while he appeared in a number of Shakespearean plays growing up, Lithgow was more interested in becoming a fine artist. "I actually didn't want to go into the theater; I wanted to resist it. It was the family business," Lithgow later reflected. "I grew up doing a huge amount of acting in my dad's companies; but through my whole childhood, I wanted to be an artist—a painter and a printmaker. But I got to college and fell into the theater gang, and
