James Lipton

Louis James Lipton (September 19, 1926 – March 2, 2020) was an American writer, actor, talk show host, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. He wrote the book and lyrics for the 1962 Broadway musical Nowhere To Go But Up. He was the librettist and lyricist for the short-lived 1967 Broadway musical Sherry!, based on the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play The Man Who Came to Dinner. His book, Exaltation, was published in 1968 and has been in-print and revised several times since then, including a 1993 Penguin Books edition. Lipton was the executive producer, writer, and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Acters Studio, which debuted in 1994. He retired from the show in 2018. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son. He died of cancer at the age of 90 in New York City, where he lived with his wife and two daughters. He also had a son with his second wife, who died in 2011. He had a daughter with his third wife, and one with his fourth wife, both of whom died in 2012.