Actor, Overseer and Class Marshal

John A. Lithgow '67 is a popular man these days--at the box office, the theater and among Harvard alumni.

The actor was elected by a huge margin to the University's Board of Overseers three years ago to be, as he puts it, "a voice for the arts." And most recently, Lithgow was summoned by his class to serve as marshal for their 25th reunion.

Cambridge is no strange territory to Lithgow, who comes to Harvard regularly both to attend Overseer meetings and to visit his son, Ian Lithgow '94.

"I have to admit that my post as Overseer seems, at times, to be an excellent excuse to see my son on the stage," Lithgow says.

Championing the arts as an Overseer comes naturally to Lithgow, who spent his undergraduate days splitting time between the Loeb mainstage and studies in Restoration drama. He did well enough in school to capture a Fullbright scholarship, but theater was his passion.

"Acting was always the natural thing to do," Lithgow says.

Lithgow's description of his Harvard Career seems timeless, but he says that he was very much aware of the turbulent political climate in the country.

When Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara came to campus in the fall of 1966 to gave a short talk in Quincy House, Lithgow watched as hundreds of students mobbed the secretary as he tried to leave, forcing him to exit though underground tunnels.

"This was a milestone," Lithgow says, "the first major example of campus activism in that era."

Lithgow got his acting start after graduation in his father's Princeton, N.J. theater--quickly moving to Broadway.

Although he says his stage acting has always been more meaningful, Lithgow began a long movie career with The World According to Garp in 1982.

Lithgow also starred in 1985's 2010, containing the human-like super computer, Hal. Lithgow laughs at the suggestion that Hal might bear some resemblance to the modern research university which Lithgow manages in the real world.