Arthur Lithgow

American theatre director (1915–2004)

Arthur Lithgow

Born|

Arthur Washington Lithgow III

(1915-09-09)September 9, 1915

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

Died| March 24, 2004(2004-03-24) (aged 88)

Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.

Spouse| Sarah Jane Price
Children| 4, including John
Relatives| Ian Lithgow (grandson)

Arthur Washington Lithgow III (September 9, 1915 – March 24, 2004) was a Dominican-American actor and director. He helped pioneer the regional theater movement in the United States and founded two Shakespeare festivals.

## Early life

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Lithgow was born in Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, the son of Ina Berenice (née Robinson), an American nurse, and Arthur Washington Lithgow II, an American-Dominican entrepreneur born to Ellen Prentiss Peirce, American, and Washington G. Lithgow, a Dominican of American descent, who was a vice consul and vice commercial agent in the country.[1][2] He first appeared onstage in December 1920 at age 5 as a cherub in a Christmas pageant at the Unitarian Church in Melrose, Massachusetts.

## Career

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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.[3] He made his New York City debut in November 1938, as a soldier in Jacques Deval's anti-Nazi drama, Lorelei.[1][4]

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.[5]

Lithgow received his MA from Cornell University on playwriting in 1948 and served as assistant professor of dramatics at Antioch from 1947 to 1956.[3][4] 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.[6]

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 the United Kingdom.[3] 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.[4] 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.[1] In 1956, the festival partnered with the Toledo Zoo and works were presented outdoors at Antioch and at the zoo.[6]

After leaving Antioch, Lithgow went to Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts; Waterville, Ohio; and Stockbridge, Massachusetts.[7] In 1958, he moved to Northern Ohio as Executive Director of Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, Ohio.[3] He produced a summer Shakespeare festival in 1960, but was fired from Stan Hywet in May 1961.[7] Having already scheduled a second summer Shakespeare season in 1961, he produced the festival at the Ohio Theater in Cuyahoga Falls.

In the summer of 1962, he founded the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Lakewood, Ohio (today known as the "Great Lakes Theater").[8]

He appeared on Broadway in A Cure for Matrimony, Steel and the musical Lorelei (which starred Carol Channing and was based on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes).

In 1963, he became artistic director of the McCarter Theatre at Princeton University until 1972, when he and his family relocated to Boston, where he was a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He served as administrative director of the Brattleboro Center for the Performing Arts in Brattleboro, Vermont. In 1976, he became a Visiting Associate Professor of the Theatre Arts at the University of South Florida at Tampa. While there he began directing the Alice People Theatre.[3] He returned to Antioch College to direct two summer Shakespeare festivals in 1981 and 1982.[3] At Antioch in 1981, he directed the rarely produced complete versions of all three parts of Shakespeare's Henry VI, performed over three nights.[4]

From 1982 to 1984 he taught at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.[3] In Ithaca, New York, he co-founded the Ithaca Theater Guild along with former Cornell University classmate Edward Kamarck.[1][3][9]

## Personal life

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Lithgow married actress Sarah Jane Price in 1939. They had four children, including John, who is an Emmy- and Tony-winning actor.[1][10]

## Death

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Lithgow died of heart failure at age 88 in Amherst, Massachusetts.[11]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (March 25, 2004). "Arthur Lithgow, 88, Stage Actor Who Led Regional Companies, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
2. ^ "Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources". Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Arthur Lithgow Papers, 1937-1992". Department of Special Collections and Archives, Kent State University.
4. ^ a b c d "Obituaries: Arthur Lithgow". Yellow Springs News. April 1, 2004. Archived from the original on February 13, 2005. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
5. ^ Democrat and Chronicle article by George L. David, November 12, 1944, and Rochester Times-Union article by Warren Phillips, November 13, 1944; both articles archived in the 1944-1946 Scrapbook, Rochester Community Players collection, Local History Division, Rochester Public Library
6. ^ a b Jones, Kenneth (March 25, 2004). "Arthur W. Lithgow, Regional Actor and Director Who Ran McCarter Theatre and Antioch Shakes Fest, Dead at 88". Playbill. Archived from the original on April 4, 2004. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
7. ^ a b "Heldenfels, Rich (September 25, 2011). "John Lithgow recalls Akron Years in New Memoir". Akron Beacon Journal. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
8. ^ "History and Background". Great Lakes Theater Festival.
9. ^ "Yellow Springs and The Arts: Arthur Lithgow". One Globe Publishing.
10. ^ "Biography: John Lithgow". Biography. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
11. ^ Willis, John; Hodges, Ben, eds. (May 1, 2006). Theatre World. Vol. 60\. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. p. 320\. ISBN 978-1557836502.

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