jews d

in
the

continued from page 127

JAMES LIPTON

James Lipton, who grew up in Detroit, is
regularly seen in 94 million American homes.
His Emmy-winning television program,
Inside the Actors Studio, even reaches into
homes covering 125 countries.
Lipton, an actor-writer-producer, has built
his most important success by drawing out
the meaningful experiences, opinions and
emotions of celebrities in the entertain-
ment industry. Steven Spielberg and Barbra
Streisand are among hundreds interviewed.
“When
When I was a child, I would walk to the
Fisher Theatre ev
every Saturday afternoon and
watch a movie [b
[before it established itself
as a theater],” Lipton
Lip
recalled in 2007 for the
Jewish News.
“I didn’t know the Nederlander family then,
but I got to know some of the family mem-
bers very well in New York. I’ve told them
what a profound influence the family had on
my life.”
Lipton, now in his 90s, attended Central
High School and Wayne State University. He
lived with his mother,
mo
Betty Weinberg Lipton;
his dad left when the celebrity host was a
6-year-old, and th
the two reconciled later.
Lipton’s book Inside
I
‘Inside’ describes
tim as his mother taught in
hard financial times
Highland Park.
“I don’t know w
why my parents distanced
themselves from Judaism, but they both
were atheists,” he said. “I’ve always been like
my parents [in th
that way]. I hope that doesn’t
k
offend anyone. I know
so many people who
are religious and do very good things and for
whom I have the deepest respect.”

128

July 18 • 2017

PIPER LAURIE

Sam Raimi, raised
raise in northwest Detroit and
Franklin, remained
remain loyal to family — and
the area — while establishing a strong film
and television career
ca
as director, producer,
screenwriter and actor.
This became especially
e
evident while he
filmed Oz the Gre
Great and Powerful, released
in 2013. The film was directed in Pontiac
and included walk-on
wal
parts for his niece and
nephew, Rose and
an Sander Rubin. His brother,
Ted, an actor, has been cast more seriously in

Piper Laurie, 85, who spent her first six years
in Detroit with her European immigrant par-
ents before the family moved to California,
keeps on acting — the latest project with a
hometown connection.
When the film White Boy Rick is released
in 2018, she will have a role as the plot tells
about Richard Wershe Jr., now getting media
attention as his life sentence for drug traffick-
ing is being reviewed.
Laurie, whose name was changed from
Rosetta Jacobs by a film executive, has had
notable roles in The Hustler, Carrie and
Children of a Lesser God. Television credits
reach from Days of Wine and Roses in the
1950s to an early episode of Cold Case.
Last October, she appeared at the Detroit
Film Theatre for a celebration of her work.
“I always felt very much a Jew,” the actress
told the Jewish News. “I went to Sunday
school in a little synagogue near Los Angeles,
and I was confirmed.

Sam Raimi

Piper Laurie

SAM RAIMI
RAIM

James Lipton

roles for and apart from his brother.
The Spider-Man series, ranked among Sam
Raimi’s most notable directorial work, had
sister Andrea Raimi Rubin as an extra during
New York filming. Early projects involve the
Evil Dead series, a cult favorite.
Raimi, a lifelong movie buff, was making
films as a youngster without the advantage
of video techniques. He left Michigan State
University before graduating to head for
Hollywood.
“My father [Leonard Raimi] was really
my main influence,” he told the Jewish
News in 1994. “He not only made 16 mm
home movies of the family, which I thought
were just great, he also bought me my first
movie camera.”
Raimi, 57, who graduated from Groves
High School and invented comedies filmed
around the neighborhood, had his bar mitz-
vah at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. He has
been supportive of the Anti-Defamation
League.
In 2016, with the release of The Jungle Book,
Raimi got to demonstrate his acting skills as
the Giant Squirrel.

jn

“The rabbi who married my sister is the
same rabbi who married me. I observe some
holidays and [have lighted the candles on
Friday nights].”

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER

Jerry Bruckheimer, TV and film producer
who graduated from Mumford High School
in 1961, has been listed among Forbes’ 100
highest-paid celebrities.
Bringing that milestone was his work on
many series, including 1983’s Flashdance,
the CSI group, and popular movies, such as
Pearl Harbor, Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun.
“I’ve never been mistaken for a message
producer,” Bruckheimer was quoted by
the Jewish Journal covering his acceptance
of a humanitarian award at the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in 2012. He added that
morality subjects, though not his goal,
entered into his productions, such as
Remember the Titans, profiling sports figures
as a way of addressing racial issues.
In 2005, Bruckheimer visited his
home state to accept an International
Achievement Award from ArtServe
Michigan.
While growing up in northwest Detroit,
where he had his bar mitzvah at a
Conservative synagogue, Bruckheimer went
to weekly matinees at neighborhood the-
aters, and that fueled his film interests. He
found work in New York advertising before
taking on Hollywood ventures.
In 2014, when introducing his biogra-
phy filled with pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer:
When Lightning Strikes — Four Decades of
Filmmaking, he told CBS This Morning: “I
was never a great student in school so I was
gravitating toward visuals and got a camera.
I was always very shy so I had a camera in
front of me and didn’t have to talk.
“The most important thing for young
individuals is to find something they
really like and that they’re very good at.
Sometimes, those things don’t match. I
found something I was really good at, and
I loved doing it. I think that’s the key to
success.”

continued on page 130

Jerry Bruckheimer