Arthur Lithgow
| Arthur Lithgow | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Arthur Washington Lithgow III September 9, 1915 Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic |
| Died | March 24, 2004 Amherst, Massachusetts, United States |
Arthur Washington Lithgow III (September 9, 1915 – March 24, 2004) was an American actor and director. Lithgow, the father of actor John Lithgow, helped pioneer the regional theater movement and founded two Shakespeare festivals.
Lithgow was born in Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, the son of Ina Berenice (née Robinson), a nurse, and Arthur Washington Lithgow II, an entrepreneur. His parents were of American descent. He first appeared onstage in December 1920 at age 5 as a cherub in a Christmas pageant at the Unitarian Church in Melrose, Mass. He appeared in student productions at Antioch College, where he founded the Antioch Summer Theater in 1935 and where he received his BA in 1938. He made his New York City debut in November 1938, as a soldier in Jacques Deval's anti-Nazi drama, Lorelei.
A nomad all his life, Lithgow was in Rochester, New York near the end of World War II, where he appeared in amateur productions such as the glib cockney scoundrel in an amateur production of the English comic melodrama Ladies in Retirement, produced by the Rochester Community Players. He married Sara Jane Price January 13, 1939, an actress he had met at Antioch, and they had four children, including John, who was born in Rochester, October 19, 1945.
Lithgow received his MA from Cornell University on playwriting in 1948 and served as assistant professor of dramatics at Antioch from 1947 to 1956. In summer 1951 he was associate producer of the Shaw Festival at the Rice Playhouse on Martha's Vineyard, where he performed in several plays by George Bernard Shaw.
He first began directing Shakespeare at Antioch College in 1952, when he became the Founder and Artistic Director of the Antioch Shakespeare Festival, or "Shakespeare under the Stars," as it came to be known. Within a period of six years, this festival produced all of the works of Shakespeare, bringing the attention and praise of even the Queen of England. Set on an elaborate, multilevel stage behind Antioch’s Main Building, the festival attracted during its five-year run a total attendance of over 135,000. Directing and acting in many of these productions, he played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew opposite Nancy Marchand's Kate, and also played Stephano, Peter Quince, Dr. Caius and Henry IV. In 1956, the festival partnered with the Toledo Zoo and works were presented outdoors at Antioch and at the zoo.
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