James Lipton, former host of ‘Inside the Actors Studio,’ dies at 93

James Lipton, the author and actor who spent decades hosting “Inside the Actors Studio," has died, according to multiple reports. He was 93.

Lipton’s wife, Kedakai Mercedes Lipton, confirmed his death Monday to The New York Times and TMZ.

She told TMZ her husband had been battling bladder cancer.

“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,” Kedakai Mercedes Lipton told the celebrity news site.

Lipton was born September 19, 1926, in Detroit to Lawrence Lipton, a beatnik poet, and Betty Weinberg, a teacher and librarian. He took up acting to support his studies while working to become a lawyer and eventually changed career paths to focus on the arts.

He moved to New York City, where he studied under actress and renowned acting teacher Stella Adler. In 1951, he appeared on Broadway in “The Autumn Garden" and subsequently joined the cast of “The Guiding Light,” where he acted for several years. He produced a pair of Broadway shows and wrote the book and lyrics for two Broadway musicals.

In the 1990s, Lipton served as a vice president of the Actors Studio at New York’s Pace University. Together with other Studio members, including Paul Newman, Ellen Burstyn, Norman Mailer and Lee Grant, Lipton combined the Actors Studio with The New School for Social Research to create the Actors Studio Drama School.

As the founding dean of the school, Lipton created a noncredit academic craft seminar that would come to be known as “Inside the Actors Studio.” During the televised seminar, which began airing on Bravo in 1994, Lipton interviewed successful, accomplished actors, directors and writers.

Many otherwise media-shy actors were willing to appear on “Inside the Actors Studio” because Lipton focused on their art and not the usual celebrity chatter or project promotion.

"People do not come on to sell a movie and you never hear the words, ‘I’m opening in Vegas in two weeks,’ " Lipton told The Associated Press in 1996, when the show was in its second season. “That’s what most talk shows depend upon, and that’s fine, but with us we’re getting together to dig as deep as we can.”

In a 1999 review of the television program, The New York Times noted, “In Mr. Lipton’s guest chair, actors cease being stars for a while and become artists and teachers. And these are roles they seem to relish."

Lipton hosted “Inside the Actors Studio” until 2018.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dawn Wells FILE PHOTO: Actress Dawn Wells attends the 2015 TV Land Awards at Saban Theatre on April 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. Wells died Wednesday of illness related to COVID-19. She was 82. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images) (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

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