John Lithgow claimed his third Tony Award on Sunday night, winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Giant at age 80 — making him the oldest actor ever to take the prize in that category.
Accepting the award, Lithgow drew a striking line back to his first Tony, 53 years ago: “My first one was 53 years ago at my Broadway debut in the American premiere of an English play, which by an amazing coincidence originated at London’s Royal Court Theatre, just like Giant. Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them.”
Giant, written by Mark Rosenblatt and directed by two-time Tony winner Nicholas Hytner, places Lithgow at the center of a single fraught afternoon in the life of Roald Dahl — the beloved children’s author whose career was shaken in the 1980s by widely condemned antisemitic remarks. Dahl faces a stark choice: issue a public apology or watch his name and reputation collapse. Also transferring from the West End production are Elliot Levey, who won an Olivier for his role as Dahl’s Jewish publisher Tom Maschler, Aya Cash as U.S. publisher Jessie Stone, and Rachael Stirling as Felicity Crosland.
Lithgow first originated the role at London’s Royal Court Theatre and later in the West End transfer at the Harold Pinter Theatre, earning the Olivier Award for Best Actor while the production won Best New Play. The Broadway run carried that critical momentum intact, with Lithgow widely regarded as the season’s frontrunner in a competitive field that included Nathan Lane, Daniel Radcliffe, and Mark Strong.
The win adds to a career that straddles stage and screen with rare fluency. Beyond his three Tonys, Lithgow has received six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Academy Award nominations. On Broadway alone, he has appeared in 25 productions across more than five decades, with acclaimed work in The Changing Room, M. Butterfly, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Sweet Smell of Success.
In his acceptance speech, Lithgow turned briefly wry before finding genuine emotion. “Oh my God, this is wonderful,” he opened. “The other gentlemen in my category, you all deserve this. I got it.” He grew more serious when addressing the play itself: “I play the lead role in an extraordinary play. A stunning play made by people full of love and kindness. But it’s a play about cruelty in a cruel age.”
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The Tony caps what has been a late-career surge for Lithgow — from his Emmy-winning turn as Winston Churchill in The Crown to his Oscar-nominated work in Conclave — confirming that, at 80, the stage remains where he is most at home.
