Posted on 03/02/2020 11:02:11 AM PST by Borges
James Lipton, the creator, executive producer and longtime host of Bravo’s interview series Inside the Actors Studio, died today of bladder cancer at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.
His wife, Kedakai Mercedes Lipton, announced his death.
From 1994 until his retirement in 2018, Lipton interviewed some 300 actors about their careers, training and the acting life on the Emmy-winning talk show. Known for his extensive research – detailed on the collection of index cards he kept at the ready – the genial, professorial and ever-curious Lipton was known for for the extensive pre-show research that would fill up the many blue cards he carried onto the set.
With a studio audience of Actors Studio Drama School students – Bradley Cooper appeared on the show both as a questioning student and as a movie star – the one-hour program featured big-name actors who often seemed moved by Lipton’s loving attention to even their most obscure works.
Lipton announced his retirement from the show in 2018, timed to coincide with the show’s 2019 move from its longstanding home on Bravo to Ovation TV. The latest incarnation of Inside The Actors Studio – part of the master’s degree program at the Actors Studio Drama School of Pace University – features a rotating roster of guest hosts.
Though his interviews were exhaustive, Lipton made a point of keeping the questions on the craft and study of acting, strictly avoiding anything remotely tabloid. “I made a vow early on that we would not deal in gossip — only in craft,” Lipton said upon his retirement announcement.
The Bravo run included more than 200 episodes and the series earned 20 Emmy nominations — its lone win came in 2013 for Outstanding Informational Series or Special. Lipton won a Critics’ Choice Award for hosting in 2016.
With his carefully trimmed beard and spectacles, Lipton was the very image of the erudite, know-it-all professor, an image the self-deprecating host was known to embrace. “I think he’s got me cold,” Lipton once told CNN of Will Ferrell’s pompous Saturday Night Live version of the host.
He may just be giving a great performance as a dead guy.
Too soon?
3x5” index cards will go on the clearance rack soon.
Never heard of him. Is this from England?
Thank you for sharing. His show influenced my career choices.
Nope. Show was on the Bravo network for like 25 years.
About the only. Thing I ever watched on Bravo. He was a good interviewer. And ninety-three is a good run. Same age as my dad and same Ailment. RIP.
the one interview I remember was with Clint Eastwood and in the crowd was a young Bradley Cooper..who would have thought these 2 would make American Sniper together.
The only pitch BC said repeatedly to make the movie was “it’s like Unforgiven” ..
He conducted some of the most articulate and engaging “celebrity”
interviews ever. As noted earlier, he prepared and focused on the
craft of acting.
His is work is worth watching.
So he was like a Charley Rose type interviewer; in depth, but w/o the distraction of personal scandals. That’s a rare breed of interviewer today.
“Lipton made a point of keeping the questions on the craft and study of acting”
Politics were hardly EVER mentioned. I enjoyed him.
Rest in Peace.
Enjoyed his work greatly.
I liked him. The few times I watched the show was before Hollywood went completely to the pits of Hell. I found him very entertaining. RIP Mr. Lipton
Hey we just discovered Dick Van Dyke is 94.
and a communist.
I sort of knew that before. He’s been laying low until this Bernie love.
RIP, Mr. Lipton. I enjoyed his show almost as much a I enjoyed Will Farrell’s parodies of it. And, as much as I despise Alec Baldwin, Baldwin did a hilarious Charles Nelson Riley impression on one of those SNL skits. Another very funny skit had Lipton/Farrell interviewing “Screech” from Saved by the Bell.
Condolences to family and friends of James Lipton. Unique individual on the tubes. R.I.P., sir. Thanks.
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