Was John Lithgow in the military?

Legendary American actor John Lithgow never served in the military. He actually avoided the Vietnam war draft (Nov 1, 1955 – Apr 30, 1975) because of his acting career.

At the time of the war, Lithgow was undergoing his drama studies when he was called up to serve for his country. He managed to keep out of the war by acting.

At the time he had received a federal grant to study in England and during a chat for Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Lithgow explained what transpired;

“(It kept me out of the war) up to a point, and at a certain point, I was drafted anyway. I just got out of it – pure acting. That’s what it was like back in those days.
“If you stayed in school, you were protected to a point.”

But he was eventually sent a draft notice, forwarded on by his parents in New Jersey, which he tried, and failed, to get out of because of his grant.

After the failure, Lithgow was then made to visit a Royal Air Force base in the U.K. which had a U.S. presence.

I just said;

‘I have a pathological fear of conflict.’ I had actually attempted to get out of the draft as a conscientious objector because I objected to the war, but they had completely discarded that,” the 73-year-old recalled.

“I did cry, I fainted when they drew my blood. I felt so ashamed of myself… it was like I was acting but I wasn’t acting for the right reasons. I wasn’t acting for an audience and telling a story.”

However, Lithgow still has regrets for not taking part in the war. He said;

“That regret has stayed with me.

“That moment for a young man, the late ’60s, is like a third rail of American society. You rarely get guys to tell how they got out of the draft, because there is a lingering shame to that, I think.

“And yet in those days, you’d get stoned and tell your hilarious story to everybody. We all had a comic story, like a stand-up comedy routine. Up until then, you were just a nervous wreck, and afterwards you had your war story too, except that it was an anti-war story.”