"Inside the Actors Studio" host and veteran TV writer James Lipton has died

[Heenan Fan]

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"Inside the Actors Studio" host and veteran TV writer James Lipton has died at age 93.

Lipton passed away peacefully Monday morning at his home from bladder cancer. His wife, Kedakai Turner, tells TMZ ... "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."

The man had a storied career in and around television and film. Of course, he served as the Dean Emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in NYC for several years. And, he was responsible for spearheading the famous talk show, "Inside the Actors Studio," in which James would interview actors big and small to pick their brains about the craft.

It was filmed in front of a live audience full of student actors, some of whom got chance to ask questions from time to time. He started the show in 1994 and finally retired in 2018 after 22 seasons. The program continues to this day, however, with other hosts.

Lipton has interviewed stars like Ben Affleck, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Morgan Freeman, Ian McKellen, Eddie Murphy, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Ron Howard, Anthony Hopkins, Jim Carrey, Al Pacino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Willem Dafoe, Brad Pitt, Henry Winkler, Betty White, Naomi Watts, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg, Hugh Grant and on and on and on.

One of the more memorable guests on the show was Bradley Cooper, who was once a student at the Actors Studio, and even asked a pretty good question of Sean Penn about revisiting a character he'd played before. He asked that in 1999, and circled back as a star in 2011.

Lipton said it was one of his favorite interview, because it was so emotional and great to see one of his students make it big. He appeared on over 250 episodes and conducted hundreds of interviews.

He had other claims to fame as well -- perhaps most notably, his many TV head writing credits on shows like 'Capitol,' 'Return to Peyton Place,' 'The Doctors,' 'The Best of Everything,' 'Another World,' and several TV specials he contributed to as a writer.

JL also had regular appearances as an actor on 'Arrested Development,' playing Warden Stefan Gentles ... the bumbling law man who aspired to be a big shot screenwriter, and was kinda obsessed with the Bluth family.

He had other acting credits to his name -- starring in projects like 'Bewitched,' 'Guiding Light,' 'The Goldbergs,' 'Cold Squad,' 'You Are There,' and even offering up his voice talents to the Disney movie "Bolt." Lipton also went down in 'SNL' history for Will Ferrel's regular spoof portrayal, which was a staple character on the show in the 2000s.

We last got him on camera in 2015 talking about any possible snubs he might have received over the years. Turns out, no one ever turned him down for 'ITAS.' Go figure.

[TMC]

James Lipton was a visionary ahead of his time: Inside the Actors Studio paved the way for the modern podcast

"Lipton was part teacher, part host, and fully in control of the little world he created, which merged art and life into one," says Kyle Koster, in paying tribute to Lipton, who died Monday at age 93. "He was also a visionary ahead of his time, creating content that would become intensely in-demand as the decades passed, demand oftentimes created by those who cribbed heavily off his playbook. Inside the Actors Studio was an incubator for creatives who took the intriguing aspects of the long-form interview show and applied it to the audio form. Lipton was, in many ways, a trailblazer for the modern podcast. More specifically, the upper-crust podcasts that lean heavily into the model he helped establish. He wasn't afraid to go long. Guests would sit for hours and hours to produce the best edit. He was immensely prepared, willing to go deep on the details, and wasn't afraid of being too niche. Most importantly, the process was as important as the finished product. Perhaps more important. Lipton wanted to know the why, the how, the when, the what, and the who. He famously asked the same 10 questions. At the same time, he was well-researched and capable of going any direction at any moment. Though vastly different in tenor and tone than Howard Stern, the two laid the groundwork for the impossibly-prepared, intimate celebrity interview. Each stripped away the veneer of public posturing and touched a nerve. Each understood that real nourishment lies beneath the candy shell. Lipton boldly understood that he could put on such a specific, nuanced show and have it resonate with people all over the country. His ability to predict what people would be interested in was just as formidable as his grasp of what they were interested in."

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• James Lipton was serious enough to laugh at himself: "His quiet, tremulous voice created a rapt and reverent mood among his audience, and it seemed to hold his interviewees in a trance as well," says Miles Klee. "...This sacred televisual atmosphere informed me that acting went beyond memorizing lines and hitting cues. The biggest stars would sit in this minimalist studio, opposite an inquiring, bearded fellow I recognized from nowhere else, and divulge the nature of their emotion, how they harnessed it for the purposes of art. It’s the male guests I remember best, as the separation between their big-screen swagger and small-screen humility was strikingly pronounced. How could blockbuster heavies be actual, uncertain people?"
• Celebrities react to Lipton's death: He was every actor's "dream interview"
• Revisiting Lipton's scrumtrulescent impact on pop-culture
• Bradley Cooper was Lipton's most memorable guest: Cooper went from appearing on Actors Studio as a student asking Sean Penn question to appearing as a an A-list actor guest.
• Here are even some of Lipton's best interviews
• From James Lipton to Jack Lemmon: Here are more of Lipton's best interviews
• Watch Lipton on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in a 2004 "In the Year 2000" sketch