--- title: Ellen Burstyn Remembers the Actors Studio's James Lipton description: I’ve never known anybody who did so many things in so many different directions so well, writes Ellen Burstyn of the late James Lipton. canonical: https://time.com/5796704/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn/ author: Ellen Burstyn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-05T12:00:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:23:33.895Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Ellen Burstyn on How James Lipton Became the Maestro of the Master Class og:description: Lipton died March 2 at 93 og:url: https://time.com/5796704/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35e3b2b33f5050a4/698a0b1c16d884eeefc37d46/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ellen Burstyn on How James Lipton Became the Maestro of the Master Class twitter:description: Lipton died March 2 at 93 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35e3b2b33f5050a4/698a0b1c16d884eeefc37d46/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ellen Burstyn on How James Lipton Became the Maestro of the Master Class by [Ellen Burstyn](https://time.com/author/ellen-burstyn/) ## Ellen Burstyn Mar 5, 2020 12:00 PM UTC  James Lipton guest-stars as himself in the "Goodbye" season finale episode of GLEE airing May 22, 2012 James Lipton guest-stars as himself in the "Goodbye" season finale episode of GLEE airing May 22, 2012FOX Image Collection/Getty Images by [Ellen Burstyn](https://time.com/author/ellen-burstyn/) ## Ellen Burstyn Mar 5, 2020 12:00 PM UTC When James Lipton, who died March 2 at 93, first came to the writer-directors unit at the Actors Studio, I knew who he was from his 1968 book, _An Exaltation of Larks_. What I didn’t know was that he was not only a writer but also an actor and a producer and a director. I was very impressed with all his accomplishments in so many different areas. This was soon after the death in 1982 of Lee Strasberg, who was head of the studio, and we had to take over the responsibility of keeping the Actors Studio going. We invited Jim to be on the board, and he suggested the idea that we develop a master’s-degree program, so we’d have a workshop for professional actors but also a school that trains the new generation. Jim became the dean of the school, and then we designed a master class where members of the studio, like Al Pacino and Paul Newman, would come in and be interviewed by Jim for the students. Then Jim said, “You know, we really should tape this.” And that became _Inside the Actors Studio_. I’ve never known anybody who did so many things in so many different directions so well. I was most shocked when he turned out to be an expert horseman! And he was very amusing with a great sense of humor, so he was quite a spectacular person to know and to work with all these years. We are all going to miss him desperately. _Burstyn is an actor and a current co-president of the Actors Studio_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5796704/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5796704/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn/"},"headline":"Ellen Burstyn on How James Lipton Became the Maestro of the Master Class","datePublished":"2020-03-05T12:00:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:23:33.895Z","description":"Maestro of the master class","url":"https://time.com/5796704/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn/","keywords":["remembrance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35e3b2b33f5050a4/698a0b1c16d884eeefc37d46/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ellen Burstyn","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ellen-burstyn/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35e3b2b33f5050a4/698a0b1c16d884eeefc37d46/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn","caption":"James Lipton guest-stars as himself in the \"Goodbye\" season finale episode of GLEE airing May 22, 2012","creditText":"FOX Image Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5796704/actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-ellen-burstyn/","name":"Ellen Burstyn on How James Lipton Became the Maestro of the Master Class"}}]}] ```