James Lipton
Encyclopedia
James Lipton is an America
n writer
, poet
, composer
, actor
and dean
emeritus
of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University
in New York City
. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio
, which debuted in 1994. He is also a pilot
and member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
.
, the son of Betty (née
Weinberg), a teacher, and journalist Lawrence Lipton
. Noted as the author of the popular Beat Generation
chronicle, The Holy Barbarians, Lawrence Lipton was a graphic designer, a columnist for the Jewish Daily Forward
and a publicity director for a movie theater.
, Lipton portrayed Dan Reid on WXYZ-Radio's The Lone Ranger
. Moving to New York, he initially studied to be a lawyer, and turned to acting only to finance his education. He wrote for several soap opera
s, Another World
, The Edge of Night
, Guiding Light
, Return to Peyton Place
and Capitol
, as well as acting for over ten years on Guiding Light. In 1951, he appeared in the Broadway play The Autumn Garden
by Lillian Hellman
. He portrayed a shipping clerk turned gang member in Joseph Strick
's 1953 film, The Big Break, a crime drama.
Lipton was the book writer 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 over 30 years, and the original cast was never recorded. In 2003, a studio cast recording (with Nathan Lane
, Bernadette Peters
, Carol Burnett
, Tommy Tune
, Michael Myers
and others) renewed interest in the show.
In 1968, his book, An Exaltation of Larks, was first published, 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 claimed his activities included fencing
, swimming, and equestrian
pursuits and that he had written two Broadway productions. He speaks French fluently.
In 1983, Lipton published his novel, Mirrors, about dancers' lives. He later wrote and produced it as a TV movie. In television, Lipton has produced some two dozen specials including: twelve Bob Hope Birthday Special
s; The Road to China, an NBC entertainment special produced in China; and the first televised presidential inaugural gala (for Jimmy Carter
).
, and sought to create a three year educational program for actors that would be a distillation of what he had learned in the twelve years of his own intensive studies. In 1994, he arranged for the Actors Studio - the home base of "method acting
" in the USA for over sixty years - to join with New York City's New School University and form the Actors Studio Drama School, a formal degree-granting program at the graduate level.
Lipton created a project within the Actors Studio drama school: a non-credit class called Inside the Actors Studio
(1994), where successful and accomplished actors, directors and writers would be interviewed and would answer questions from acting students. These sessions are also taped and broadcast on television for the general public to see. The episodes are viewed in 89 million homes throughout 125 countries. Lipton himself hosts the show and conducts the main interview.
During an interview with the writer, Daniel Simone, when asked if he had anticipated the sudden success, Mr. Lipton's eyes widened, and his deep trained voice boomed, "Not in my wildest imagination." Then he supplemented, "It was a joint arduous effort involving many people. At a point and time, I had three lives. I was the dean of the Actors Studio, the writer of the series, its host and executive producer. I maintained a preposterous 16-hour schedule."
. He has been married to Kedakai Turner, a model and real estate broker, since 1970.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University
Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University
The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University is a three-year graduate program for the theater arts. It was established at Pace University in 2006 and grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees in Acting, Directing and Playwriting. James Lipton serves as Dean Emeritus...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio is a series on the Bravo cable television channel, hosted by James Lipton. It is produced and directed by Jeff Wurtz; the executive producer is James Lipton. The program, which premiered in 1994, is distributed internationally by CABLEready and is broadcast in 125 countries...
, which debuted in 1994. He is also a pilot
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
and member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is a Frederick, Maryland-based non-profit political organization. Incorporated on 15 May 1939, AOPA's membership consists mainly of general aviation pilots in the United States...
.
Early life
James R. Lipton was born in Detroit, MichiganDetroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, the son of Betty (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Weinberg), a teacher, and journalist Lawrence Lipton
Lawrence Lipton
Lawrence Lipton was an American journalist, writer, and beat poet, as well as the father of James Lipton.Lipton was born in Lodz, Poland, the son of Rose and Abraham Lipton. He was brought to the United States in 1903 and settled in Chicago, Illinois...
. Noted as the author of the popular Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
chronicle, The Holy Barbarians, Lawrence Lipton was a graphic designer, a columnist for the Jewish Daily Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
and a publicity director for a movie theater.
Career
A 1944 graduate of Central High SchoolCentral High School (Detroit, Michigan)
Central High School is the oldest secondary school in Detroit, Michigan; it is staffed and operated by the Detroit Public Schools.-History:In 1858, Detroit's first high school opened on Miami Avenue. By 1863, due to increased enrollment, the school was moved to a building that had formerly housed...
, Lipton portrayed Dan Reid on WXYZ-Radio's The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
. Moving to New York, he initially studied to be a lawyer, and turned to acting only to finance his education. He wrote for several soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s, Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
, The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
, Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
, Return to Peyton Place
Return to Peyton Place (TV series)
Return to Peyton Place is an American daytime soap opera which aired on NBC from April 3, 1972 to January 4, 1974. The series was a spin-off of the primetime drama series Peyton Place rather than an adaptation of the 1959 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.The storylines from the daytime...
and Capitol
Capitol (TV series)
Capitol is an American soap opera which aired on CBS from March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987 for 1,270 episodes. As its name suggests, the storyline usually revolved around the political intrigues of people whose lives intertwined in Washington D.C....
, as well as acting for over ten years on Guiding Light. In 1951, he appeared in the Broadway play The Autumn Garden
The Autumn Garden
The Autumn Garden is a 1951 play by Lillian Hellman. The play is set in September, 1949 in a summer home in a resort on the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles from New Orleans. The play is a study of the defeats, disappointments and diminished expectations of people reaching middle age. For...
by Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
. He portrayed a shipping clerk turned gang member in Joseph Strick
Joseph Strick
Joseph Strick was an American director, producer and screenwriter.Born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, Strick briefly attended UCLA before enrolling in the Army during World War II. In the Army, he served as a cameraman in the Army Air Forces.In 1948, he and Irving Lerner produced Muscle Beach...
's 1953 film, The Big Break, a crime drama.
Lipton was the book writer and lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
for the short-lived 1967 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical Sherry!
Sherry!
Sherry! is a musical with a book and lyrics by James Lipton and music by Laurence Rosenthal. The musical is based on the George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart play The Man Who Came to Dinner....
, based on the Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
and George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
play The Man Who Came to Dinner
The Man Who Came to Dinner
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a comedy in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939 at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert...
, with music by his childhood friend Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal is an American composer, arranger, and conductor for theater, television, and films.Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rosenthal attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied piano and composition...
. The score and orchestrations were lost for over 30 years, and the original cast was never recorded. In 2003, a studio cast recording (with Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
, Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings...
, Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
, Tommy Tune
Tommy Tune
Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...
, Michael Myers
Mike Myers (actor)
Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...
and others) renewed interest in the show.
In 1968, his book, An Exaltation of Larks, was first published, and has been in print and revised several times since then, including a 1993 Penguin books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
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 claimed his activities included fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
, swimming, and equestrian
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
pursuits and that he had written two Broadway productions. He speaks French fluently.
In 1983, Lipton published his novel, Mirrors, about dancers' lives. He later wrote and produced it as a TV movie. In television, Lipton has produced some two dozen specials including: twelve Bob Hope Birthday Special
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
s; The Road to China, an NBC entertainment special produced in China; and the first televised presidential inaugural gala (for Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
).
Inside the Actors Studio
In the early 1990s, Lipton was inspired by Bernard PivotBernard Pivot
Bernard Pivot, OC, CQ is a journalist, interviewer and host of French cultural television programmes. He is a member of the Académie Goncourt.-Biography:Pivot was born in Lyon, the son of grocers...
, and sought to create a three year educational program for actors that would be a distillation of what he had learned in the twelve years of his own intensive studies. In 1994, he arranged for the Actors Studio - the home base of "method acting
Method acting
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...
" in the USA for over sixty years - to join with New York City's New School University and form the Actors Studio Drama School, a formal degree-granting program at the graduate level.
Lipton created a project within the Actors Studio drama school: a non-credit class called Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio is a series on the Bravo cable television channel, hosted by James Lipton. It is produced and directed by Jeff Wurtz; the executive producer is James Lipton. The program, which premiered in 1994, is distributed internationally by CABLEready and is broadcast in 125 countries...
(1994), where successful and accomplished actors, directors and writers would be interviewed and would answer questions from acting students. These sessions are also taped and broadcast on television for the general public to see. The episodes are viewed in 89 million homes throughout 125 countries. Lipton himself hosts the show and conducts the main interview.
During an interview with the writer, Daniel Simone, when asked if he had anticipated the sudden success, Mr. Lipton's eyes widened, and his deep trained voice boomed, "Not in my wildest imagination." Then he supplemented, "It was a joint arduous effort involving many people. At a point and time, I had three lives. I was the dean of the Actors Studio, the writer of the series, its host and executive producer. I maintained a preposterous 16-hour schedule."
Personal life
Between 1954 and 1959, Lipton was married to actress Nina FochNina Foch
Nina Foch was a Dutch-born American actress and leading lady in many 1940s and 1950s films.- Personal life :...
. He has been married to Kedakai Turner, a model and real estate broker, since 1970.