Award-winning actor John Lithgow opens up about the death of his father and how it inspired his new Broadway production, in a candid interview with Lee Cowan to be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 7 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

Lithgow tells Cowan it was the time he spent telling stories to his then-ill father that became the groundwork for “Stories by Heart,” his one-man show.

“Those of us who reach 60, 70 years old, if you’re lucky, you still have your parents with you, and it’s a big, big part of your life, taking care of them, and easing them into death,” Lithgow says. “Easing them toward death.”

For Lithgow, that happened in 2002, when his father, a normally buoyant, jolly man, fell into silence and depression after major surgery. While sitting next to his father’s bed, Lithgow began to read stories from a tattered book that he calls the “Lithgow Bible.” He read to his father the same stories his father read to him when Lithgow was a child.

“It did wonders for an old man near death,” Lithgow says.

Those same stories make up his one-man play, which has Lithgow playing no fewer than 11 characters – including a parrot. Lithgow says it’s very “daunting and presumptuous” to think one person can hold an audience for two hours, but he felt he had something to say with the work.

“It was the most important month of my life,” Lithgow tells Cowan of that time with his ailing dad. “When my father was suffering like that, he had this feeling, particularly by the end of the month, when it was so sweet, it was time to go. But when it was time to leave, it was like leaving your children at summer camp. I mean, he was so worried that he wouldn’t be able to sustain his high spirits. You know, it was very, very tender.”

Lithgow also talks with Cowan about his career, including his role as Winston Churchill in the Netflix series “The Crown,” and why he relishes playing villains.

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

Follow CBS SUNDAY MORNING on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and CBSNews.com. Listen to CBS SUNDAY MORNING podcasts at Radio.com.

***

Press Contact: