James Lipton, the host of “Inside the Actors Studio” who also worked as a TV writer, has died at age 93, according to his wife.
Lipton succumbed to bladder cancer and died Monday at his home in New York City, wife Kedakai Turner confirmed to entertainment website TMZ and the Hollywood Reporter.
“There are so many James Lipton stories but 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,” she told TMZ.
Over the years, on his interview show, he spoke with actors including Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Eddie Murphy, Robert Duvall, Brad Pitt, Jeff Bridges, Ben Affleck, Ian McKellen, Faye Dunaway, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jim Carrey, Willem Dafoe, and many others.
Lipton also wrote for shows including “Capitol,” “Return to Peyton Place,” “The Doctors,” “The Best of Everything,” and others. He appeared on “Arrested Development,” “The Goldbergs,” “Cold Squad,” and others, according to his IMDB page.
He also served as a vice president of the Actors Studio and held the lifelong title of Dean Emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama Program.
“If you had put a gun to my head and said, ‘I will pull the trigger unless you predict that in 23 years, Inside the Actors Studio will be viewed in 94 million homes in America on Bravo and in 125 countries around the world, that it will have received 16 Emmy nominations, making it the fifth most-nominated series in the history of television, that it will have received an Emmy Award for outstanding informational series and that you will have received the Critics’ Choice Award for best reality series host—predict it or die,’ I would have said, ‘Pull the trigger,'” he said of the show’s success, according to the Reporter.
He stopped hosting the show in 2018 after it moved from Bravo to Ovation TV.
“I made a vow early on that we would not deal in gossip—only in craft, and Ovation, as a network dedicated to the arts, will continue that tradition with the next seasons of the series,” Lipton said at the time. “I’m excited to see the new hosts engage with the guests and students and continue to entertain viewers in the U.S. and around the world.”
From The Epoch Times
