A conversation with James Lipton as hosted by Scott Eyman
a Complimentary signed copy of Mr. Liptons new book "Inside Inside" will be given to all ticket buyers.
James Lipton
James Lipton is widely known as the creator, executive-producer, writer and host of Inside the Actors Studio, which is seen in 84 million American homes on Bravo, and around the world in 125 countries. From 1994 to the present, more than 200 actors, directors and writers have joined him in creating what many consider the definitive craft archive of our time.
The television series, which has been recognized with thirteen Emmy nominations in thirteen years, is in fact a course in a master’s degree program, the renowned Actors Studio Drama School of Pace University, which was created thirteen years ago by Mr. Lipton as a vice-president of the Actors Studio, in collaboration with his Studio colleagues, and which, with Mr. Lipton as its founding dean, became the largest graduate drama school in America.
Just as each of his distinguished guests brings to Inside the Actors Studio a lifetime of experience to be shared with the school’s students, Mr. Lipton brings to the series and the school his experience as actor, director and producer in theater, film and television, choreographer, playwright, lyricist, screenwriter, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and academician.
More than ten years of his life were spent in the classroom as a student of three of the acknowledged masters of the theatrical arts, Stella Adler, Harold Clurman and Robert Lewis. He was trained in modern dance and ballet by Hanya Holm and Alwin Nikolais, and in ballet by Ella Daganova and Benjamin Harkarvy. His voice teachers were Eva Gauthier and Arthur Lessac.
His acting career began on Broadway in “The Autumn Garden” by Lillian Hellman, and extended to a wide variety of roles in film and television.
Bringing all the disciplines in which he was trained to his career as a producer, he has been responsible as writer and executive-producer for some of television’s most celebrated specials, among them Jimmy Carter’s Inaugural Gala, the first Presidential concert ever televised, and the first television special to originate in the Kennedy Center; twelve Bob Hope Birthday Specials, reaching record-breaking audiences; and The Road to China, the first American entertainment program from the People’s Republic, which aired for three hours on NBC.
On NBC TV, he was the writer and producer of Mirrors, adapted by him from his novel; and he created the story and teleplay for Copacabana, which was chosen by TV Guide as one of the year’s ten best TV films.
Scott Eyman
Scott Eyman has been the Books Editor of the Palm Beach Post for more than 15 years. His most recent book, “Lion of Hollywood: The Life of Louis B. Mayer” (Simon & Schuster, 2005) was named one of the five best books about Hollywood by the Wall Street Journal.
He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. During his journalism career, which has included stints at the Fort Lauderdale News Sun-Sentinel and the Miami News (as film critic and entertainment editor), Eyman has won more than 20 awards for his journalism, and three Emmy awards for his television writing.
He has contributed many articles to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Film Comment, and numerous other publications. He is currently a regular book critic for the “New York Observer.”
In addition to journalism, he has written eight books, including the film history textbook Flashback (co-written with Louis Giannetti, currently in its fifth edition), Mary Pickford: America's Sweetheart, (1990) a biography of the first female superstar and movie mogul, and Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise (1993). The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Coming of Talkies, 1923-1930, was published in 1996 by Simon and Schuster, while “Print the Legend: The Life of John Ford” was published in 1999 and named one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times. He is currently co-authoring the memoirs of Robert Wagner and writing the authorized biography of Cecil B. DeMille.
He and his wife live in West Palm Beach. When not reading or writing, Eyman concentrates on traveling, raising orchids and raising dogs.
