Inside the Life of James Lipton

James Lipton was a legendary host on Bravo before Andy Cohen took over the late night on Bravo. James created and hosted a television called Inside the Actors Studio. Inside the Actors Studio is more than a talk show it is a seminar for actors in training getting to know film and television actors to share their experiences.Unlike standard celebrity interviews, the show explored Acting technique, Creative struggles, Professional training, Emotional preparation, and Directorial choices.

Born as Louis James Lipton on September 19, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. Lipton was the only son of Betty, a teacher and librarian and Lawrence Lipton, a journalist and beat poet. When Lipton was six, his parents divorced and his father abandoned them. Lipton's family struggled financially, and he started to work when he was 13 years old. He worked in high school as a newspaper copy boy for the Detroit Times and as an actor in the Catholic Theater of Detroit and in radio. Lipton had initially intended to become an attorney. After graduating from Central High School in Detroit, he attended Wayne State University for one year in the mid-1940s and enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces.

Lipton talked with Vanity Fair about his time in Paris in the 1950s, when he worked for about a year as a pimp. On the Today show, Lipton clarified that he had worked as a beneficent maque in the regulated prostitution business. After graduating high school, Lipton portrayed Dan Reid, the Lone Ranger's nephew, on WXYZ Radio's The Lone Ranger. He initially studied to be a lawyer in New York City, and turned to acting to finance his education. Lipton started in The Guiding Light, playing the role of Dr. Dick Grant and eventually becoming head writer. He wrote for several soap operas: Another World, The Edge of Night, The Best of Everything, Return to Peyton Place and Capitol. Lipton studied for two and a half years with Stella Adler, four years with Harold Clurman, and two years with Robert Lewis. He also started studying voice and dance (including modern dance and classical ballet), and choreographed a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre. In 1951, he appeared in the Broadway play The Autumn Garden by Lillian Hellman. He wrote the book and lyrics for the 1962 Broadway musical Nowhere To Go But Up. The show had its tryout in Philadelphia at the Shubert Theatre opening October 6, 1962, to mixed notices. The show opened in New York on November 10, 1962, at the Winter Garden, to generally unfavorable reviews. John Chapman wrote in the NY Daily News that the show "is delicious bathtub gin. . . . This is a happy show." But Howard Taubman said in The New York Times: "Don't let anyone tell you that 'Nowhere to Go but Up' is a little horror. Because it's a big one."As a result, Kermit Bloomgarden, the producer, decided to close the show on November 17, 1962, after nine performances. A group of 234 small investors tried to keep the show from closing by parading in front of the theater and sought an injunction, but the NY Supreme Court ruled in favor of the producer. He was the librettist and lyricist for the short-lived 1967 Broadway musical Sherry!, based on the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play The Man Who Came to Dinner, with music by his childhood friend Laurence Rosenthal. The score and orchestrations were lost for more than thirty years, and the original cast was never recorded. In 2003, a studio cast recording (with Nathan Lane, Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Tommy Tune, Mike Myers and others) renewed interest in the show.

His book, An Exaltation of Larks, was first published in 1968, and has been in print and revised several times since then, including a 1993 Penguin Books edition. The book is a collection of "terms of venery", both real and created by Lipton himself. The dust jacket biography for the first edition of Exaltation said his activities included fencing, swimming, and equestrian pursuits and that he had written two Broadway productions.

The program began as a televised craft seminar for students of the Actors Studio Drama School, originally a joint venture of the Actors Studio and New School University in 1994, with Paul Newman, a former Actors Studio president, as its first guest, and soon became Bravo's flagship program.

Since its premiere, Inside the Actors Studio has had over 300 guests. The first episode's guest was Paul Newman (Alec Baldwin was the first guest, but his interview was broadcast after Newman's). The guests have included 74 Academy Award winners: eight directors; four screenwriters; 61 actors and actresses; and three composers. For its 200th show, Lipton became the guest subject of the show. He was questioned by Dave Chappelle, whom he picked personally. The show ended with the Pace University provost announcing that the college was sponsoring a scholarship in Chappelle's name to his high school alma mater. Based on the show, James Lipton published a book titled Inside Inside in 2007. Saturday Night Live parodies the host where actor Will Ferrell portrays as Lipton and the host of the show and the cast members of SNL.

Lipton thought it was funny and admires Will Ferrell and Lipton became friends and was on his show. The show has been nominated for 18 Emmy awards winning one Emmy in 2013. The show continued on without Lipton with variety of actors hosting and interviewing actors in front of the students. The last episode of the show was when actress Uzo Adubo as the host and guest Lupita N'yongo.The show ended in 2019. I guess they preferred James Lipton as the host interviewing the actors. On March 2, 2020, Lipton passed away from bladder cancer at his Manhattan home. He was 93.

Lipton was the most remarkable host of the show not just as a host but introducing A list actors and directors to acting students educating them on acting.

Source

Wikipedia