{"id":5044,"date":"2026-06-08T13:28:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/john-lithgow-80-celebrates-making-history-at-tony-awards-2026-with-emotional-speech\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:28:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:28:58","slug":"john-lithgow-80-celebrates-making-history-at-tony-awards-2026-with-emotional-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/john-lithgow-80-celebrates-making-history-at-tony-awards-2026-with-emotional-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lithgow, 80, celebrates making history at Tony Awards 2026 with emotional speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F06%2F130228579-1.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>John Lithgow made history at the <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/06\/07\/style\/tony-awards-2026-red-carpet-live-updates-see-all-the-celebrity-looks\/\">Tony Awards 2026<\/a>, becoming the oldest male actor to win a competitive Tony at age 80.<\/p>\n<p>Lithgow won Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his portrayal of children\u2019s author Roald Dahl in <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/23\/entertainment\/giant-review-john-lithgow-is-superb-as-roald-dahl-in-broadway-show-about-his-revolting-anti-semitism\/\">\u201cGiant.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh my God, this is wonderful,\u201d he began <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D-BttsHcSI0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his emotional acceptance speech<\/a> onstage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>John Lithgow (seen above) accepted the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for \u201cGiant\u201d at the 2026 Tony Awards on Sunday. <span class=\"credit\">Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Lithgow (pictured above accepting his award) made history as the oldest male actor to win a competitive Tony at age 80. <span class=\"credit\">Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Lithgow gave a shoutout to the other nominees in his category \u2014  Will Harrison, Nathan Lane, Daniel Radcliffe and Mark Strong \u2014 before he gushed over \u201cGiant,\u201d calling it \u201can extraordinary play\u201d that was \u201cmade by people full of love and kindness.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The legendary actor also said he feels \u201clucky\u201d because he won his first Tony Award 53 years ago for \u201cThe Changing Room,\u201d which he performed at London\u2019s Royal Court Theatre \u2014 just like \u201cGiant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo Tony bookends, with 53 years between them,\u201d Lithgow said as he fought back tears.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>During his speech, Lithgow (seen above) gave a shoutout to the other nominees in his category. <span class=\"credit\">Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>He also said he feels \u201clucky\u201d because he won his first Tony Award 53 years ago and performed that production at the same London theatre as \u201cGiant.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He continued, \u201cIn those years, I have worked with hundreds of fantastic theater artists. I\u2019ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic theater moments onstage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I have to tell you, this moment has got to be one of the best,\u201d Lithgow added, as the crowd cheered.<\/p>\n<p>Now held by Lithgow, the record for the oldest man ever to win a competitive acting Tony was previously set by Roy Dotrice at age 77 when he won Best Featured Actor in a Play for \u201cA Moon for the Misbegotten\u201d in 2000. Dotrice died at age 94 in 2017.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Lithgow (pictured above in \u201cGiant\u201d) said: \u201cI have to tell you, this moment has got to be one of the best.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Lithgow (pictured above in \u201cGiant\u201d) also called the play \u201cextraordinary\u201d that was \u201cmade by people full of love and kindness.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lithgow has won three Tonys, his second being for \u201cSweet Smell of Success\u201d in 2002. He was nominated four other times in 1985, 1988, 2005 and 2012.<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cGiant,\u201d Lithgow plays Dahl in the 1980s when the British author faced backlash for making antisemitic comments.<\/p>\n<p>The play premiered in London in 2024 and won three Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Play and Best Actor for Lithgow.<\/p>\n<p>The Broadway production of \u201cGiant\u201d opened in March, with Elliot Levey,\u00a0Rachael Stirling and\u00a0Aya Cash\u00a0joining Lithgow in reprising their roles.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Lithgow (seen above with \u201cGiant\u201d co-star Aya Cash) already won a Laurence Olivier Award for his role in the London production of \u201cGiant.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Lithgow (pictured above at the 2026 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees press junket) plays children\u2019s author Ronald Dahl in \u201cGiant.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Gregory Pace\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two-time Tony winner Nicholas Hytner directs \u201cGiant,\u201d which ends its Broadway run on June 28.<\/p>\n<p>During <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dtPpvtGEHGE&amp;source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an appearance on \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d<\/a> on March 9, Lithgow explained how the topics in \u201cGiant\u201d feel relevant to today\u2019s political climate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a piece of history,\u201d Lithgow shared, \u201cIt\u2019s an examination of that day. And as you can imagine, in this day and age, it\u2019s extraordinarily timely.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/06\/08\/entertainment\/john-lithgow-80-celebrates-making-history-at-tony-awards-2026-with-emotional-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Lithgow made history at the Tony Awards 2026, becoming the oldest male actor to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/130228579-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}