Actor John Lithgow will be honored with the 2017 Harvard Arts Medal Thursday during the 25th anniversary of Arts First. This annual spring festival is founded by the comedic and dramatic actor as free performances events. Before the event, he inspired Harvard students through an interview.

Harvard President Drew Faust will honor Lithgow with the award at the Loeb Drama Center, Harvard Gazette reported. He starred in "The World According to Garp," "Dexter," "Third Rock From the Sun," and "The Crown" as Winston Churchill. In the taped interview, Lithgow talked about how he started into acting, his life before theater, and his affection for Harvard.

After his critically acclaimed performance in the Golden Globe-winning series "The Crown," the 71-year-old actor will go back to comedy with "Trial & Error," Stuff reported. He will play the South Carolina poetry professor Larry Henderson, who is a guy who loves roller-skating, and was arrested for allegations of killing his wife. It's a funny series that somehow is a spoof of crime documentaries.

Lithgow is now the 24th recipient of the prestigious Harvard Arts Medal. His acting range gained him the nickname, "actor's actor." As a magna cum laude graduate at Harvard, he said the most active and creative years of his life were during his undergraduate years. Lithgow has accumulated countless credits and accolades worldwide.

His performance as transgender Roberta Muldoon in "The World According to Garp" gained him an Academy Award nomination, as well as best supporting actor nominations from New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. He also won the 1973 Tony Award for his performance in "The Changing Room." He started his successful TV career in 1996 starring in "3rd Rock from the Sun" as the alien Dr. Dick Solomon, which made him won two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe.