James Lipton was a multifaceted individual with a career spanning various fields, including acting, academia, authorship, choreography, interviewing, scriptwriting, and production for stage and television projects. He is best known for creating and hosting the popular TV series Inside the Actors Studio (1994),where he interviewed successful and prominent actors, directors, and writers to discuss their craft and share their experiences with acting students.
Born Louis James Lipton in Detroit, Michigan, James Lipton was the son of a teacher and librarian, Betty (Weinberg),and a writer and beatnik poet, Lawrence Lipton (originally Israel Lipschitz). His parents divorced when he was young, and he grew up in a chaotic environment, which led him to initially pursue a stable career as a lawyer. However, he eventually shifted his focus to acting and pursued intensive studies in the performing arts.
Lipton studied acting and directing under the renowned Stella Adler, who was widely regarded as the most respected acting teacher in American dramatic arts. He also studied with Harold Clurman and Robert Lewis, and he honed his skills in voice, modern dance, classical ballet, and jazz technique.
Throughout his career, Lipton performed in various stage productions, including the play "The Autumn Garden" on Broadway in 1951. He also became active in several TV soap operas, including Guiding Light (1952),where he acted and wrote scripts for several years. He went on to become the head writer for several other TV shows, including The Edge of Night (1956),Another World (1964),The Best of Everything (1970),Return to Peyton Place (1972),and Capitol (1982).
In addition to his work in television, Lipton wrote the book and lyrics for the Broadway flop "Nowhere to Go But Up" (1962) and the stage production "Sherry!" (1967). He also produced several Broadway shows, including "The Mighty Gents" (1978),"Monteith & Rand" (1979),and "Ain't Misbehavin'" (1978),which won a Tony Award.
Lipton was a lover of words and made a study of group terms, sometimes called nouns of multitude. He published the definitive work on the subject in a best-selling book titled "An Exaltation of Larks" (1968),which has been in print continuously since its first edition. The book contains over 1,100 such phrases, and Lipton himself invented many new terms, including "a score of bachelors" and "a shrivel of critics."
In 1983, Lipton published his novel "Mirrors," which is about the lives of dancers. He later wrote and produced it as a TV movie. He also produced several TV specials, including the first-ever televised presidential inaugural gala for Jimmy Carter.
In the mid-1990s, Lipton created a three-year educational program for actors at the Actors Studio, which was later formalized as the Actors Studio Drama School in 1994. The school became the largest graduate-level drama school in the United States during Lipton's term as dean.
In 1994, Lipton created the non-credit class Inside the Actors Studio, where he interviewed successful and accomplished actors, directors, and writers. The show was a huge success and has been on the air for over 12 years, with over 200 guests, including Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and many others. The show is viewed in 80 million homes in the USA and is seen in 125 countries.
Lipton's TV show made him a household name, and he was frequently parodied on Saturday Night Live by comedian Will Ferrell. He continued to host and produce Inside the Actors Studio until his death on March 2, 2020, at the age of 93.
