Sir John Lithgow's Rise to Fame

John Lithgow is probably best known for playing oddballs and weirdos: a psychotic physicist in â??Buckaroo Banzai,â? an extraterrestrial college professor on the long-running sitcom â??3rd Rock From the Sunâ? and most recently the creepy serial killer Arthur Mitchell in the Showtime series â??Dexter.â? With his big, almost hulking frame and long, quizzical-looking face, Mr. Lithgow on screen or onstage effortlessly manages to seem like a panic-stricken creature imprisoned in the wrong body.