Who

Lipton is known for his endlessly fawning interviews with celebs on Inside the Actors Studio.

Backstory

The son of beat poet Lawrence Lipton, Detroit-born James moved to Paris in the aftermath of World War II and worked as a pimp. (He says he was technically what the French called a mec, which he argues is a bit less dishonorable because a mec is an employee of a prostitute rather than vice versa, but really it's all the same.) After decamping to New York, Lipton landed a gig writing and acting on the soap opera Guiding Light in 1952. For the next three decades, he wrote lyrics for Broadway musicals (like the short-lived 1967 show Sherry!) as well as scripts for several soap operas, including Another World and The Edge of Night. He also produced scripts for various TV specials, including more than a dozen Bob Hope Birthday extravaganzas. In 1994, Lipton took over the Actors Studio—the school founded by the legendary Lee Strasberg—and in conjunction with the New School took his act to the airwaves with a show on Bravo. In 2005, Lipton and New School president Bob Kerrey parted ways, and Lipton took the program to Pace University.

Of note

Lipton's insanely sycophantic interviews with celebs have made him a pop culture icon and earned him a long-running parody on SNL by Will Ferrell, as well as more sporadic mockeries elsewhere. The spotlight-loving Lipton, for his part, has never shied away from the unflattering attention—he's embraced it, making a handful of self-mocking appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. But recent years have seen the spoofs ebb, a trend that mirrors the declining relevance of his show. Although Lipton's subjects were solidly A-list in earlier years—Al Pacino, Sidney Lumet, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and Paul Newman all fielded softballs from him—more recent seasons have seen the wattage dim a bit with ass-kissy interviews with the likes of Teri Hatcher, Martin Lawrence, and Tim Allen.

In print

Lipton's published several books of fiction and non-fiction, most recently a 2007 book about the show entitled Inside Inside.

Personal

Lipton's first marriage was to actress Nina Foch. He now shares an East 80th Street brownstone with his second wife, the half-Japanese, half-Irish former model Kedakai Lipton, who is now a real estate broker at Corcoran. The couple also owns a home in Bridgehampton.

Off hours

He's a licensed pilot, used to compete in horse shows, and is a Pilates devotee. Why? Because he learned the method directly from Joseph Pilates and his wife, Clara, of course.