John Lithgow

My father was a professor at Antioch College and created this summer Shakespeare festival that lasted for years and years and became more and more professional.

And at a certain point, he decided, I'm going to become a professional theater man instead of a university professor.

And off we went.

And that was at the end of my sixth grade year.

And between then and...

And my graduation from high school, I lived in about eight different places.

We just moved and moved and moved because it's not an easy life creating and running regional theaters, God knows.

Four Shakespeare festivals in Ohio and ultimately 10 years running the McCarter Theater in Princeton, but I was off to college by that time.

The word is peripatetic.

I was like a service brat except in the service of American classical repertory theater.

It was in college.

I mean, I arrived at Harvard where all the campus theater was extracurricular.

And within two weeks, I was cast in a major role, Reverend Anderson in The Devil's Disciple at the Big Lobe Theater.

And boom, I was the campus star.

I mean, I was already an experienced actor without any intention of becoming an actor, which is the best possible way to become an actor.

And by the time I finished college, off I went to London to study in earnest at Lambda.

But it was that period of wonderful, creative four years where I—

played major roles.

I directed and designed.

I directed two Mozart operas and staged a ballet.