Article published in Dropline.biz on March 6, 2006

David Lipper─Lifetime's “Black Widower”

By Sarah D. Goldstein (co-authored by Dino M. Zaffina)

Actor David Lipper stars in Lifetime’s Black Widower which premieres on March 27, 2006, on the Lifetime Movie Network. In this wild, yet true story based on actual events of a murder mystery that went unsolved until 1996, David portrays handsome, successful, and charming General Motors executive, Ed Amos.

One morning Amos finds his beautiful wife dead in their bed. During the investigation, the police discover cocaine and alcohol in their fancy hotel suite. Amos claims that he and his wife partied heavily and his wife overdosed and died. Based on the drugs and alcohol in the room, the story seems plausible; however, further investigation uncovers that the prime suspect had two previous wives that also died mysterious deaths. It appeared that not only wives were the victims of mysterious deaths. The police discovered that Amos’ mother also died of questionable causes.

It was determined that the common denominator between all four women was the fact that they all had insurance policies with large proceeds going to Amos, the sole beneficiary on all of them. The police and District Attorney’s office view this distraught widower as a powerfully deceiving master manipulator and pathological liar. The DA “Nancy” (Kelly McGillis) is the driving force behind Amos’ investigation. The goal is to take this guy down. Black Widower is directed by Christopher Leitch (Charmed, A Family in Crisis: The Elian Gonzales Story, The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin’ in Brooklyn Heights, and many more credits beginning in 1974) and written by Benita Garvin (The Killing Yard, Love Trip, When the Vows Break).

This mystery thriller is just one of a laundry list of acting credits for David Lipper. This Montreal Canadian born actor received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in musical theater at Emerson College in Boston. After graduation in 1991, David performed in a month long run as Fyedka in Fiddler on the Roof, which was slated for a Russian tour. The tour was cut short by the revolution started by Boris Yeltsen.

David, who always had this struggle between music and acting, both of which he thought were viable careers and both of which he loved, presented him with a career making dilemma when he was offered an opportunity to go to New York and perform the Fantastics off-Broadway. David recalls, “I looked at the money and it was just so bad, and it was just so expensive to live in New York. I thought about it, I could be doing six shows a week of the Fantastics, and just scrapping by. I don’t want to go struggle in New York, that’s not me. I’m not the mad struggling artist who wants to live in pain and eat Ramon noodles to make a statement. I would rather go make a TV show or a movie and enjoy my life.”  So, David made the decision to go out to Los Angeles.

Once Lipper settled in Los Angeles, he set sail for a successful acting career. He started with some guest starring appearances on television shows such as Step by Step, Misery Loves Company, and Crisis Center. Lipper received a big break when he was cast in the role of “Viper” for the 1994-1995 season of Full House. Although Lipper had the talent to pull off the role, portraying a member of Jesse Katsopolis’ (John Stamos) rock band, it did fit like a glove because Lipper always had a band growing up in high school and through college playing guitar and piano. Lipper’s musical abilities lead him to write and produce the theme song for the TV series Misguided Angels. In the Annette Funicello Story, David was playing the piano and singing as a young Paul Anka.

David’s musical talents are not only part of his repertoire, but they proved useful in a therapeutic way. He spoke candidly about a break up with a longtime girlfriend. “I had a bad break up, as I would imagine many of us do at some point in our life; that inspired a whole bunch of songs. I didn’t leave my condo in LA for about three months and sat with my guitar and wrote a bunch of songs. When I went back to Montreal to visit, I called up my old buddy; I asked if he still had his studio, I told him that I had some new tracks that I would like to lay down over the next few days. He agreed and we did a marathon studio session.”  This resulted in David feeling a lot better and now with twelve new songs, one of which is “LA My Lady” based on his ex-girlfriend. (David Lipper’s Music).

After Full House, David’s career really took off with feature films, television movies, and television sitcoms and episodics, some of his credits include: Cheaper By the Dozen 2, The Pacifier, Trump: Unauthorized, I Do But I Don’t, See Jane Date, This Time Around, Threshold, Ghost Whisperer, NCIS, and Tru Calling. (David Lipper’s Reels and Videos).

Lipper is proud of his body of work for which he gives a 100% performance level in every role. One role that he was sad to leave was that of Kenneth McKinley in the 1999 television series Misguided Angels. Lipper not only starred in this series, but he also wrote and produced the theme song and his longtime friend scored the show. Misguided Angels shot 22 episodes and was later shelved without airing a one.

The show was filmed in Montreal for Fox Family Channel. During production Fox Family Channel was sold to ABC which later became ABC Family. Haim Saban who owned the show at the time allegedly made a deal to buy back the show, so that it could be shelved, so that another one of his shows could run for two more years in its time slot.

David felt really bad about the show stopping production. He said, “I put my heart and sole into this project for a year. Waking up at 5:00 a.m. and coming home at 8:00 p.m. I was the star of the show and I worked with the writers. Our goal was to make Misguided Angels the best show for children. It was a family show. My little nephew and niece loved the show. There is value in children’s entertainment. We had a lot of pride in this show.”

Even though Lipper felt bad about the end of Misguided Angels he let it go.  He has a rule that he lives by, “Once a certain time has past you move on, try not to dwell on it.”

For more information on David Lipper go to his official website: www.davidlipper.com.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________