James Lipton

James Lipton was an American writer, actor, talk show host, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He was the executive producer, writer, and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio.

Lipton performed in the play The Autumn Garden on Broadway in 1951. He became active in several TV soap operas, joining the cast of Guiding Light where he acted and wrote scripts for several years and later became head writer, all while undertaking his formal acting studies. He was a scriptwriter for The Edge of Night and he became head writer for Another World, The Best of Everything, Return to Peyton Place and Capitol.

Lipton wrote the book and the lyrics for Broadway’s Nowhere to Go But Up and Sherry!, and produced The Mighty Gents, Monteith & Rand, and co-produced the Tony award-winning Ain’t Misbehavin’. He choreographed Charlot for ballet theater, and for Moliere’s play “The Doctor In Spite of Himself” he translated from the original French, adapted it as a musical version, wrote the lyrics, directed and choreographed.

Photo by Nick Step, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.