‘Inside the Actors Studio’ host James Lipton dies at 93
LOS ANGELES ( AP) — James Lipton, an actor-turned-academic who became an unlikely celebrity and got hundreds of master actors and Hollywood luminaries to open up about their craft as the longtime host of “Inside the Actors Studio,” died Monday.
Lipton died of bladder cancer at his New York home, his wife, Kedakai Lipton, told the New York Times and the Hollywood Reporter. He was 93.
The Detroit-born Lipton began the Bravo show in 1994 that also served as a class for his students at the Actors Studio, where he was then dean.
He often said his only requirement for a guest was whether they had something to teach his students.
His first guest, Paul Newman, set a standard of stardom for those that would follow, including Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Glenn Close, Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand.
Lipton was known, and often parodied, for his highbrow and sometimes worshipful tone with his subjects, and for his intensive preparation, represented by a stack of blue notecards that held his meticulously researched questions. When Will Ferrell played Lipton on “Saturday Night Live” the stack of cards was nearly a foot thick.
Many otherwise media-shy actors were willing to appear on “Inside the Actors Studio” because Lipton focused on their art and not the usual celebrity chatter or project promotion.
“People do not come on to sell a movie and you never hear the words, ‘I’m opening in Vegas in two weeks,’ “Lipton told The Associated Press in 1996, when the show was in its second season. “That’s what most talk shows depend upon, and that’s fine, but with us we’re getting together to dig as deep as we can.”
He was not afraid to get personal, and often stunned those he interviewed with things he had learned about their childhood or private life.
“How did you know that?” was a frequent refrain from his guests.
Sally Field asked him, ‘’Have you been reading my diary? Talking to my shrink?’’
Julia Roberts asked if he had talked to her mother.
“Obviously we deal in lots of anecdotes, and even some gossip and secrets,” Lipton told the AP, “but they’re tied together by a concern for and devotion to craft.”