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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 4 March 2020
'Inside the Actors Studio' host James Lipton dies at 93

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Broadway musicals, "No-
Lipton, an actor-turned- where to Go but Up" (1962)
drama-school-dean who and "Sherry!" (1967).
got hundreds of Hollywood In the 1990s, as a vice
luminaries to open up president of the Actors Stu-
about their life and art and dio, Lipton helped create
became an unlikely celeb- the Actors Studio Drama
rity himself as the longtime School that brought to-
host of "Inside the Actors gether the resources of the
Studio," died Monday. studio and the New School.
Lipton died of bladder can- He was the founding dean
cer at his New York home, of the graduate-level
his wife, Kedakai Lipton, school, which in 2005 relo-
told The Associated Press. cated to Pace University,
He was 93. where Lipton remained its
The Detroit-born Lipton be- dean emeritus.
gan the Bravo show in 1994 Despite his TV show's guest
that also served as a class list of nearly every A-list
for his students at the Ac- actor of recent decades,
tors Studio Drama School, Lipton never got the guest
where he was then dean. he wanted most, Marlon
He often said his only re- Brando.
quirement for a guest was "He was reclusive in the last
whether they had some- years of his life," Lipton told
thing to teach his students. Parade . "He said, 'I'm never
His first guest, Paul New- going to do your show. The
man, set a standard of star- studio's always taking cred-
dom for those that would it for me. I was trained by
follow, including Meryl Stella Adler.' I said, 'So was
Streep, Robert De Niro, I. Come on. We'll talk about
Glenn Close, Steven Spiel- Stella.' I've had a pretty
berg and Barbra Streisand. good roster of guests with-
"Rest in peace, James Lip- out Marlon."
ton. He was interested in Lipton said his favorite guest
the actor's process, which on the show was Bradley
was so refreshing," Strei- Cooper, because he was a
sand said in a Twitter post. former student.
Lipton was known, and "The night that one of my
often parodied, for his students has achieved so
highbrow and sometimes much that he or she comes
worshipful tone with his back and sits down in that
subjects, and for his inten- chair would be the night
sive preparation, repre- This Sept. 28, 2017 file photo shows James Lipton at the New York City Ballet's Fall Fashion Gala in that I have waited for since
sented by a stack of blue New York. we started this thing," Lip-
note cards that held his Associated Press ton told Larry King in 2016.
meticulously researched "It turned out to be Bradley
questions. When Will Ferrell that?" when he asked him say after your death?" suggested he represent her Cooper."
played Lipton on "Satur- about something from their Lipton's own childhood and others. Lipton and Cooper, who
day Night Live," the stack childhood or private life. was made financially per- "It was only a few years af- can be seen asking Sean
of cards was nearly a foot Julia Roberts asked Lipton if ilous by the divorce of his ter the war. Paris was dif- Penn a question in a 1999
thick. he had talked to her moth- parents, poet and journal- ferent then, still poor. Men episode of the show, both
Many otherwise media-shy er after one set of ques- ist Lawrence Lipton and couldn't get jobs and, in teared up when he re-
actors were willing to ap- tions, and Sally Field in her teacher Betty Weinberg. the male chauvinist Paris turned as a guest in 2011.
pear on "Inside the Actors first-season appearance "I always had to work, from of that time, the women Lipton retired as host in
Studio" because Lipton fo- asked, "Have you been the age of 13. When my fa- couldn't get work at all. It 2018.
cused on their craft and not reading my diary? Talking ther left, we had nothing," was perfectly respectable Other than Brando and
the usual celebrity chatter to my shrink?'' he told Parade magazine for them" to work at one of Jack Nicholson, another
or project promotion. "Obviously we deal in lots in 2013. While he dabbled city's bordellos, Lipton said. favorite of his who he nev-
"People do not come on to of anecdotes, and even in acting as a youngster, Back home in the U.S., he er had as a guest, Lipton
sell a movie and you never some gossip and secrets," he intended to pursue law studied acting with famed spent little time trying to
hear the words, 'I'm open- Lipton told the AP, "but to avoid the instability he'd teacher Stella Adler as well land big names, who often
ing in Vegas in two weeks,' " they're tied together by a experienced as a young- as production and direct- came to him as appear-
Lipton told the AP in a 1996 concern for and devotion ster. ing at New York University ing on the show became a
interview. "That's what most to craft." He ultimately turned back and the New School. His sought-after sign of career
talk shows depend upon, He ended every interview to his original passion, the 1950s stage and screen achievement for actors.
and that's fine, but with us with a set of soul-search- arts, but with an unusual credits included "The Au- Lipton told the AP that that
we're getting together to ing questions he derived detour. He worked as a tumn Garden" on Broad- response from actors made
dig as deep as we can." from French television host pimp for a year in Paris af- way and a stint as actor him think that "maybe, just
He was not afraid to get Bernard Pivot, including, ter World War II, Lipton told and then writer on the TV maybe, we were creating
personal, however, and his "What is your favorite curse Parade. He was broke and soap opera "The Guiding an archive that would be
stunned interviewees often word?" and "If God exists, planning to leave the city Light." Lipton wrote the more valuable 100 years
asked "How did you know what would you like to hear when a prostitute he knew book and the lyrics for two from now.''q