‘Inside the Actors Studio’ creator James Lipton dies at 93
James Lipton, creator and host of the long-running US television show Inside the Actors Studio has died at the age of 93, his wife told The Hollywood Reporter and celebrity website TMZ on Monday.
Lipton, who hosted in depth interviews with hundreds of Hollywood stars for more than 20 years, died on Monday at his home in New York of bladder cancer, his wife, Kedakai Turner, told the two entertainment outlets.
Lipton created the show in 1994 and retired as host in 2018, but it has continued with other hosts.
The loquacious host was both exalted and lampooned for his hyperbole and over-the-top enthusiasm. He welcomed actors, filmmakers and writers on his long-running Bravo series to pull back the curtain on tricks of the trade, presenting professional questions to members of Hollywood’s elite.
“It was my child, it was my love!” Lipton told the L.A. Times in 2007. “Of course I had hopes, but remember, this show is not about gossip. When I started it, I said it’s going to be about craft, craft, craft. I had no dark hopes for it. I just had no way of guessing these things would happen _ that one day ... my friends would say, ‘You are getting a lifetime achievement award.’ I could not have looked ahead.”
For 24 years, the erudite multihyphenate divulged his experiences as an actor, theater, film and television director and producer, as well as choreographer, author, playwright, lyricist, screenwriter, author and academic. Yes, at one point he even worked as a “macro” in Paris’ red-light district, a topic broached during a sit-down with “Pretty Woman” star Julia Roberts.
Despite his rich backstory, the Michigan native was modest when he spoke of himself, telling The Times matter-of-factly, “I’ve never achieved anything that’s really exceptional in ways that others have.”
The interview show – Bravo’s first original series – was offered as part of a course in a master’s degree program at the renowned Actors Studio Drama School of Pace University in New York, of which Lipton was a founding dean. Each episode was a condensed version of a four- or five-hour master class in acting for graduate students.
“The relationship between the guest and the audience is totally different from any other show that I know of. Our guests come here because I’ve asked them to come and teach,” Lipton said in 2013. “I ask questions that will elicit answers that will be of use and interest to our students, and it turns out they’re of use and interest to Bravo’s 94 million subscribers.”
Ovation TV, which has broadcast the show since 2019 after a long run on Bravo, said on Twitter: “We’ll miss him dearly, but we wish him peace as he arrives at those pearly gates.”
Lipton’s guests included Bradley Cooper,
Sean Penn, Robin Williams, Paul Newman, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Lauren Bacall, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise and many more.
His interviews ended with a list of rapid fire questions, including “If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?” and “What is your favorite curse word?”
“I’m sure he would like to be remembered as someone who loved what he did and had tremendous respect for all the people he worked with,” Turner told TMZ on Monday.
(Reuters and LA Times)