Celia Lipton

Celia Lipton Farris, born Cecilia May Lipton on 25 December 1923 in Edinburgh, Scotland, was a British actress, singer, and philanthropist. Her father, Sydney Lipton, was a violinist and bandleader who appeared in Let's Make a Night of It, and her mother was May Johnston Parker.

Lipton began her professional life as a singer in England before transitioning into film work. Her screen credits from this period include Calling Paul Temple and This Was a Woman, both from 1948, and The Tall Headlines in 1952. That same year she relocated to New York City, where she pursued a stage career. In 1953 she appeared on Broadway in two productions: John Murray Anderson's Almanac and Maggie. Her television work included a 1954 episode of Goodyear Television Playhouse titled "The Personal Touch" and a two-part adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Robert Montgomery Presents, also in 1954. She later appeared in a 1989 episode of B.L. Stryker.

In 1956, Lipton married Victor Farris, the inventor of the paper milk carton. The couple settled in Palm Beach, Florida, in a house previously owned by the Vanderbilt family. When Victor Farris died in 1985, he left her an estate valued at US$100 million.

Lipton Farris devoted considerable resources to charitable causes, serving as a donor and fundraiser for organizations including the Salvation Army, the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, the National Trust for Scotland, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, The Prince's Trust, the Duke of Edinburgh Trust, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Norton Museum of Art. She also supported AIDS research. She held the distinction of Dame of Grace of the Venerable Order of Saint John. In 2008 she published an autobiography titled My Three Lives. She had two adopted daughters, Marian and CeCe.

Lipton Farris died on 11 March 2011 in Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 87.