On this day in 1945, actor John Lithgow is born in Rochester, New York. Lithgow studied acting at Harvard, then won a Fulbright fellowship to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He acted and directed with London’s prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company before returning to the United States. He began appearing in films in the early 1970s and was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of a transsexual football player in The World According to Garp (1983). In the 1990s, he starred in the hit television series Third Rock from the Sun.