The legendary James Lipton has passed on at age 93.
Lipton, an elegant and articulate wordsmith who used his academic background in theater to teach his acting students about the art of acting, led the popular Bravo series “Inside the Actors Studio” for almost 25 years.
What Lipton did for cinema is incalculable. We didn't have many options for film discussion back-in-the-day on TV, it was just Siskel/Roeper & Ebert and Inside the Actor's Studio. That’s two 30-minute shows once a week. Inside the Actor's Studio was one of the few shows at the time that really delved into the art of filmmaking through the actors that brought it to life. Now we’re practically spoiled with the likes of YouTube, and podcasts, but for a period of time, if we wanted to get into it cinematically, Lipton was our man.
Lipton's long-form interviews also deserve to be archived. There is a pathetic amount of ‘Studio’ episodes on YouTube. A treasure trove of insight awaits for people to learn about the art form and these kinds of indispensable and thorough interviews, with actors who could only feel comfortable opening-up to Lipton, should be available to stream. Maybe create a website with all of the episodes archived?
Oh, and lest we forget, Lipton was also a Parisian pimp back in his younger days in France. Seriously, look it up.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.