John Lithgow

John Lithgow studied at Harvard and then at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and the stage training explains a lot about the career that followed. His two Academy Award nominations came early, for playing Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp and Sam Burns in Terms of Endearment, both supporting roles that ask for enormous warmth and get it.

The tension in his work is between size and stillness. He is a very large man with a light touch, capable of playing at cartoon scale, as Lord John Whorfin in Buckaroo Banzai, Lord Farquaad in Shrek, and six seasons of Dick Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Then he can lower the volume to nothing, which is what makes his Arthur Mitchell on Dexter so effective: a soft spoken, apologetic man whose politeness is the frightening part.

The awards reflect the spread, seven Emmys across comedy, drama and guest categories, two Golden Globes, an Olivier and three Tonys, plus nominations for a BAFTA, four Grammys and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Late career he has become the industry's authority figure of choice, playing Winston Churchill in The Crown, Roger Ailes in Bombshell, a scheming cardinal in Conclave and a prosecutor in Killers of the Flower Moon. He has also kept a steady line in horror, from Raising Cain to Pet Sematary, and he never stopped returning to the theatre.