We’re saddened to report James Lipton, host and creator of Inside the Actors Studio, passed away Monday morning at the age of 93.
Hosted by Lipton, Inside the Actors Studio premiered in 1994 and aired on Bravo for 22 seasons before being moved to Ovation in 2019. In September 2018, Lipton announced he was stepping down and that the show would feature guest hosts for the foreseeable future.
The beloved interviewer spent the majority of his life teaching others, passing on the knowledge and skills he’d garnered during his own intensive studies. Lipton served as the dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City for many years.
Source: AP Photo/Kevork DjansezianLipton’s wife, Kedakai Turner revealed to TMZ that her husband had been battling bladder cancer for some time now and that her husband would want to be remembered as someone who “loved what he did.”
“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.”
Over the years, Lipton interviewed everyone from Morgan Freeman and Jim Carrey to Al Pacino and Eddie Murphy, but it was his 1999 interview with Sean Penn that really took us by surprise. In that particular episode, a young Bradley Cooper – still acting student at the time – asked Penn what it was like to play a character he’d previously played before.
Bradley Cooper vs Sean Penn (1999) pic.twitter.com/FaPTGGtRlk
— jimmy alto (@jimmyalto) February 8, 2019
What is your fondest James Lipton memory? Are you familiar with Inside the Actors Studio? Let us know in the comments below.