Los Angeles (AFP)
The American James Lipton, professor of comedy and presenter of "The Actors Studio", famous television program inspired by Bernard Pivot, died at the age of 93 years, announced Monday the television channel which broadcast the program .
According to those around him, he died at his New York home from bladder cancer.
It was in 1994 that James Lipton launched his show, derived from a course he had set up within the prestigious school of dramatic art and for which he interviewed stars for almost 25 years, from Paul Newman and Dennis Hopper to Julia Roberts and Scarlett Johansson.
Broadcast in France on Paris Première, "L'Actors Studio" was inspired by "Bouillon de Culture" by Bernard Pivot, who also invited James Lipton to the last of his show in 2001.
James Lipton spoke French very well and did not hide the fact that he was briefly pimped in Paris in the 1950s.
Born in Detroit in 1926, Mr. Lipton embarked on an acting career in the 1940s, before devoting himself to writing and producing.
"We will miss him very much but we wish him to arrive in peace at the gates of paradise," wrote on Ovation TV, which continues to broadcast the program that James Lipton left in 2018.
Like Bernard Pivot and his "Proust questionnaire", Mr. Lipton systematically ended his program with a series of questions to his guests, among which: "If paradise exists, what would you like to hear God tell you when you get to his doors ?"
© 2020 AFP