I’ve always thought of John Carroll Lynch as a stage actor ever since I saw him play Judas in a Denver youth production of “Godspell.” Two years later, I was handing him the bowl of water and scream-singing, “Pilate, crucify him!” in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Soon, he was performing with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and appearing in his first national tour, in “Frankenstein.”  

You know him from memorable screen roles in “Fargo” (as Norm “Son of a” Gunderson), “Zodiac” (as the probable serial killer), “American Horror Story” (as Twisty the Clown), and dozens more.

But what made film possible for him in the first place were the eight years he spent as a member of the Guthrie Theatre’s acting company in Minneapolis. There was a run of movies being filmed in Minnesota at the time, and directors like Joel and Ethan Coen were among those who tapped into the Guthrie’s deep reservoir of talent.

Lynch appeared in “Fargo,” “Beautiful Girls” and “Feeling Minnesota,” all in 1996. He’s been a consistently employed character actor ever since, most recently appearing in the acclaimed indie “Sorry, Baby.”

Additional film credits include “Gran Torino,” “Shutter Island,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” In 2017, he directed his first film, “Lucky,” starring Harry Dean Stanton.

Still, with all of his stage successes, it seems kind remarkable to me that Lynch is only now — specifically, Thursday night — making his Broadway debut. Lynch is playing Creon in “Oedipus” on Broadway at Studio 54. The play, which won the Olivier Award as Best London Revival before transferring across the pond, plays through Feb. 8.

In fact, “this is my first play in 19 years,” Lynch, a graduate of Regis Jesuit High School, said on the eve of the play’s highly anticipated New York opening.

“I’m so grateful. I’m living truly a blessed life,” Lynch posted in a message to his 27,000 followers on Instagram. “Sometimes it’s hard to square with everything that’s going on in the world.”

This version of “Oedipus,” an adaptation created and directed by Robert Icke and starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, is a modern political thriller set on election night. Like Sophocles’ source play, it explores themes of fate versus free will, but through a modern political lens. Icke became the youngest director ever to win the Olivier Award.

The original tragedy (“Oedipus Rex”) is famously about the doomed king who can never outrun the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. It has been forever linked to Freud’s theory that some boys subconsciously desire their mothers and feel jealousy toward their fathers.

Lynch plays Creon, the doomed king’s brother-in-law and uncle. Here, Creon (played in London by Michael Gould) is an urbane and slightly sinister man who solves the famous riddle of the Sphinx.

The play was rapturously received in London, with critics calling it an astonishing adaptation about a functionally dysfunctional family whose suffering becomes almost unbearable to watch, a reminder of the power of Greek tragedy to lay bare all the grief of the human soul.

Said The Guardian: “Icke transforms Sophocles’ epic tragedy into an essential, explosive, sensual human thriller catapulting the secrets of the past into a high-stakes present. This production set the stage on fire.”