James Lipton (born September 19, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan) is a writer, poet, and dean emeritus of The Actors Studio Drama School at New School University in New York City. He is also the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series, Inside the Actors Studio.
He started his career as writer for the soap operas Another World, The Edge of Night, Guiding Light and Capitol, as well as acting for over ten years on Guiding Light.
Lipton was the book writer and lyricist for the 1967 Broadway musical Sherry! based on the Moss Hart and George S. Kauffman play The Man Who Came to Dinner. The musical might have had an after-Broadway life if the score and orchestrations had not been lost for over 30 years. The orignal cast was never recorded. In 2003 a studio cast recording (with Nathan Lane, Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Tommy Tune, Michael Meyers, and others) renewed interest in the show.
James Lipton also appears infrequently on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. His most recent appearance was a sketch in which he performed a dramatic recitation of the lyrics from the song "PopoZão" from Kevin Federline's yet-to-be released album. He played an acting-obsessed prison warden on several episodes of the sitcom Arrested Development.
His book of terms of venery, An Exaltation of Larks, was published in 1968.
James Lipton, as the host of Inside the Actor's Studio, has been parodied on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live many times. Will Ferrell portrays Mr. Lipton in all of the sketches, exaggerating his quiet intensity and complementary style of interviewing famous actors. Most of the "actors" interviewed by Ferrell's Lipton are "Z" list celebrities (portrayed by an SNL regular or a guest host) who are humorously, excessively praised for the most banal film or television performances. Some of these interviewees include Dustin Diamond of Saved by the Bell and Charles Nelson Reilly, played by Tobey Maguire and Alec Baldwin respectively.
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Preceded by:
Irna Phillips,
William J. Bell
Head Writer of Another World
1965
Succeeded by:
Agnes Nixon
