Lithgow Delivers Commencement Speech at Harvard, June 8

By: Jun. 08, 2005
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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' John Lithgow has been selected for an honor rarely accorded actors: to deliver a commencement speech to graduating Harvard students on Wednesday, June 8th.

The star will be the principal speaker at Afternoon Exercises during Harvard University's 354th Commencement at the Cambridge, MA campus. In a statement, University President Lawrence H. Summers said, "John Lithgow personifies Harvard's devotion to the creative arts." Lithgow added, "Harvard's Commencement platform is a very different kind of stage for me, but one I am very excited and honored to have the privilege to speak from."

Though best known for his film work and his role on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, Lithgow, who plays the sophisticated Lawrence Jamison in Scoundrels, is a stage veteran who made his Broadway debut in The Changing Room in 1973. Other Broadway credits include Comedians, Anna Christie, Bedroom Farce, Beyond Therapy, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Front Page, M. Butterfly and The Retreat from Moscow. He played J.J. Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success, his only other Broadway musical. Film credits include playing Blake Edwards in the TV movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, both Shreks (in which he provided the voice for Lord Farquaad), a TV film of Don Quixote, The Pelican Brief, Cliffhanger, Footloose, Terms of Endearment, The World According to Garp and All that Jazz.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels features a book by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbek (The Full Monty). It stars Lithgow, Tony Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz, Sherie Rene Scott, Joanna Gleason, Gregory Jbara and Sara Gettelfinger. The production, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell, is a hit at Broadway's Imperial Theatre.

Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday - Saturday at 8 p.m., matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00 p.m., and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. The Imperial Theatre is located at 249 West 45th Street.

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