An actor's life for John Lithgow

If you pick up John Lithgow's autobiography, "Drama: An Actor's Education," expecting to read juicy tidbits about his time on "3rd Rock From the Sun" and "Terms of Endearment," you're in for a major letdown. Not that the Tony and Emmy winner doesn't name-drop everyone from Coretta Scott King to Meryl Streep. But the book focuses more on his evolution as both a thespian and a man.

Lithgow, who turns 66 on Wednesday, will be in St. Paul next weekend for an onstage chat with Garrison Keillor and an appearance on "A Prairie Home Companion." He spoke to us by phone recently about his affair with a screen legend, the great film role that got away and why he's not interested in playing one of theater's most beloved characters.

Q: I was very impressed with your writing skills. You write like a journalist with short, unpretentious sentences. Where did you learn to do that?

A: First of all, thank you. I'm a big reader. Clarity and unaffected prose are things I respect in writing. I don't like showing off.

Q: You chose not to cover a lot of your most celebrated roles. Wouldn't that have made the book more marketable?

A: People already know that stuff. I feel like I've told a million stories about "Dexter" and "3rd Rock." In a sense, my life became a lot less interesting as soon as I became famous. I know myself as an actor pretty well, my strengths and weaknesses, and I wanted to explore where those came from.

Q: What do you think your weaknesses are?

Q: You protect a lot of names in the book, but you're quite open about your affair with Liv Ullmann. Was that difficult to do?

A: Of course. It was one of the most important crises in my life at a time when I was having some of my greatest successes. I didn't seek her permission, but I sent her a copy before it went to print and would have pulled that part out if she had asked, but she was very complimentary.

Q: You're a master at playing bad guys. What's the secret?

A: No bad guy thinks he's a bad guy. He thinks he's a good guy. What made the role on "Dexter" so compelling is that you have sympathy for the devil.

Q: I find a lot of actors who are great at playing evil are the nicest people in the world. Do you think that's because they exorcise their demons onstage?

Q: Is it true that you were up for the role of Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs"?

A: Absolutely true. I went to meet director Jonathan Demme on the presumption I would play the role. It was very awkward when he told me they had offered it to Anthony Hopkins that very morning. I was OK, but my agent was furious.

Q: One could argue that you were a bigger movie star than Hopkins at the time. He should send you a dozen roses every year.

A: I'll bet you anything he sees Hannibal Lecter as kind of an albatross around his neck. There's a double-edged sword to these types of things.

Q: You could have been typecast after playing Dick Solomon on "3rd Rock." How did you avoid it?

Q: What great roles would you like to tackle onstage that you haven't yet?

A: I should really go back and do some important Shakespeare. King Lear, Prospero.

Q: I've always thought you'd be a great Willy Loman.

A: You're not the first person to suggest that. I'm not crazy about playing him. Everybody knows everything about "Death of a Salesman." "Attention must be paid" and all that. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the next to do it and I'll be there in the audience, but I've got a play next summer running concurrently on Broadway by David Auburn. It's the best new play I've read since "M. Butterfly." It's called "The Columnist." What do you know about it?

Q: Absolutely nothing.