Mandy Patinkin Biography

Summary

"Mandel Bruce 'Mandy' Patinkin" (; ) (born November 30, 1952) is an American actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist. Patinkin is known for his roles in television series such as: "Chicago Hope", "Dead Like Me" and the first two seasons of "Criminal Minds". His film credits include "The Princess Bride", "Alien Nation", "Yentl", "Men With Guns", "Run Ronnie Run" and "Dick Tracy".

Biography

Early years

Patinkin was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Doris 'Doralee' Sinton, a homemaker, and Lester Patinkin, who was the head of the People's Iron & Metal Company and the Scrap Corporation of America.

His mother wrote "Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Jewish Family Cookbook". Patinkin is a cousin of Mark Patinkin, author and nationally syndicated columnist for "The Providence Journal", and Jason 'Dink' Patinkin, President of Columbia University's EarthCo. One of his other cousins is Sheldon Patinkin of Columbia College Chicago's Theater Department and a founder of The Second City.

Patinkin grew up in a middle class Jewish family and was raised in Conservative Judaism,

attending religion school daily 'from the age of seven to 13 or 14' and singing in synagogue choirs. He attended South Shore High School, Kenwood Academy (1970 graduate), the University of Kansas, and Juilliard School of Drama. At Juilliard, he was a classmate of Kelsey Grammer. When the producers of the popular American sitcom "Cheers" were auditioning for the role of Dr. Frasier Crane, Patinkin was the one who put Grammer's name forward.

Career

After some TV commercial and radio appearances, including the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1974, Patinkin's initial success came in musical theater, where he played the part of Che in "Evita" on Broadway in 1979. Patinkin went on to win that year's Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. He then moved to film, playing parts in movies such as "Yentl" and "Ragtime". He returned to Broadway in 1984 to star in the Pulitzer Prize winning musical "Sunday in the Park with George", which saw him earn another Tony Award nomination for Best Actor (Musical).

Patinkin played Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner's 1987 "The Princess Bride" (which Patinkin considers his favorite role), in which he delivers what is possibly the best-remembered line in the film, and one he declared several times: 'Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.' Patinkin found his studies a huge asset in "The Princess Bride", playing the role of the best swordsman in the country, short of the main character, and part of his role included proficiency in fencing, at a professional level. Over the next decade he continued to appear in various movies, such as "Dick Tracy" and "Alien Nation".

On Broadway, over the next decade, he appeared in the Tony Award-winning musical "The Secret Garden" for 706 performances. He also released two solo albums, titled "Mandy Patinkin" and "Dress Casual".

In 1994, he took the role of Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on CBS's "Chicago Hope" for which he won an Emmy Award. However, despite the award and the ratings success of the show, Patinkin left the show during the second season, as he was unhappy spending so much time away from his wife. He returned to the show in 1999 at the beginning of the sixth season, but it was later cancelled in 2000. Since "Chicago Hope", Patinkin has appeared in a number of films. However, he has mostly performed as a singer, releasing three more albums. In 1995 he guest starred in "The Simpsons" in the episode 'Lisa's Wedding' as Hugh Parkfield, Lisa's future English groom.

In 1998, he debuted his most personal project, "Mamaloshen", a collection of traditional, classic, and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish ('Mamaloshen' is Yiddish for 'mother tongue'). The stage production of "Mamaloshen" was performed on and off-Broadway, and has toured throughout the country. The recording of "Mamaloshen" won the "Deutschen Schallplattenpreis" (Germany's equivalent of the Grammy Award).

In 1999 he co-starred in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland as Huxley, the evil man who tries to steal Elmo's blanket.

He returned to Broadway in 2000 in the New York Shakespeare Festival's "The Wild Party", earning another Tony Award nomination for Best Actor (Musical). Recently, he has also been seen in the Showtime comedy-drama "Dead Like Me" as Rube Sofer. In 2004, he played a six-week engagement of his one-man concert at the Off-Broadway complex Dodger Stages.

In September 2005, he debuted in the role of Jason Gideon, an experienced profiler just coming back to work after a series of nervous breakdowns, the result of six members of his team's deaths - which he feels responsible for, in the CBS crime drama "Criminal Minds."

Patinkin was absent from a table read for "Criminal Minds" and did not return for a third season. The departure from the show was not due to contractual or salary matters, but over creative differences. Many weeks before his departure, in a videotaped interview carried in the online magazine "Monaco Revue", Patinkin told journalists at the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo that he loathed violence on television and was uncomfortable with certain scenes in "Criminal Minds". He also spoke of having planned to tour the world with a musical and wanting to inject more comedy into the entertainment business. In later episodes during the 2007-2008 season, Patinkin's character was written out of the series and was replaced by Special Agent David Rossi, played by Joe Mantegna.

Personal life

Patinkin married actress and writer Kathryn Grody in 1980. They have two sons, Isaac and Gideon.

Patinkin suffered from keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease, in the mid-1990s. This led to two corneal transplants, his right cornea in 1997 and his left in 1998. He also was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in 2004. He celebrated his first year of recovery by doing a 280-mile charity bike ride with his son Isaac - the Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride: Cycling for Peace, Partnership & Environmental Protection. He subsequently joined the boards of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Hazon.

Patinkin has been involved in a variety of Jewish causes and cultural activities. He sings in Yiddish, often in concert, and on his album "Mamaloshen". He also wrote introductions for two books on Jewish culture, "The Jewish American Family Album", by Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler, and "Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Holiday Cookbook: A Jewish Family's Celebrations," by his mother, Doralee Patinkin Rubin.

Patinkin contributed to the children's book "Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again: A Musical Storybook" inspired by Christopher Reeve prior to Christopher and Dana Reeve's deaths. The award winning book, published in 2005, benefits the Christopher Reeve Foundation and includes an audio CD with Mandy Patinkin singing and reading the story as well as Dana Reeve and Bernadette Peters singing.

Awards

;Awards

1980: Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical - "Evita"

1987: CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Theatrical or Dramatic Special - "Sunday in the Park with George"

1995: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series - "Chicago Hope"

;Nominations

1984: Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture in a Comedy/Musical - "Yentl"

1990: Saturn Awards Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for Best Supporting Actor - "Alien Nation"

1995: Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Drama - "Chicago Hope"

1995: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series - "Chicago Hope"

1996: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series - "The Larry Sanders Show:" 'Eight'

1999: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series - "Chicago Hope:" 'Curing Cancer'

2003: DVD Exclusive Award for Best Original Song in a DVD, Premiere Movie - "Run Ronnie Run:" 'How High the Mountain'

Work

Stage

;Broadway

"Evita" (1979) - Che (Tony Award, 1980)

"Sunday in the Park with George" (1984) - George (Tony Award Nominee, 1984)

"Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Dress Casual" (1989)

"The Secret Garden" (1991) - Archibald Craven

"Falsettos" (1993) - Marvin (Replacement)

"Sunday in the Park with George (Tenth Anniversary Concert)" (1994) - George

"Mandy Patinkin in Concert" (1997)

"Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Mamaloshen" (1998)

"The Wild Party" (2000) - Burrs (Tony Award Nominee, 2000)

"Celebrating Sondheim"

"An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin" (2009)

;Other theater

"Enemy of the People" (Williamstown Theater Festival)

"Henry IV, Part I"

"Winters Tale"

"The Knife"

"Leave It to Beaver is Dead"

"Trelawny of the Wells" (1975) - Mr. Arthur Gower

"Hamlet" (1975-76) - Fortinbras, Player King

"Rebel Woman"

"The Shadow Box" (1977) - Mark

"The Split and Savages"

"Myths and Hymns

"The Tempest (2008) (Classic Stage Company)

Filmography

Film

"The Big Fix" (1978) - pool man

"French Postcards" (1979) - Sayyid

"Last Embrace" (1979) - first commuter

"Night of the Juggler" (1980) - Allesandro the cabbie

"Ragtime" (1981) - Tateh

"Yentl" (1983) - Avigdor

"Daniel" (1983) - Paul Isaacson

"Maxie" (1985) - Nick

"Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta" (1986) (voice: English version) - Louis

"The Princess Bride" (1987) - Inigo Montoya

"Alien Nation" (1988) - Detective Samuel 'George' Francisco

"The House on Carroll Street" (1988) - Ray Salwen

"Dick Tracy" (1990) - 88 Keys

"True Colors" (1991) - John Palmeri

"Impromptu" (1991) - Alfred De Musset

"The Doctor" (1991) - Dr. Murray Kaplan

"The Music of Chance" (1993) - Jim Nashe

"Life with Mikey" (1993) - irate man

"Squanto: A Warrior's Tale" (1994) - Brother Daniel

"Lulu On The Bridge" (1998) - Philip Kleinman

"Men with Guns" (1998) - Andrew

"The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland" (1999) - Huxley

"Piñero" (2001) - Joseph Papp

"Run Ronnie Run" (2002) - as himself, portraying Ronnie Dobbs, in an in-movie stage performance

"The Choking Man" (2005); Rick

"Everyone's Hero" (2006) (voice) - Stanley Irving

Television

"That Thing on ABC" - (1978), performer

"Charleston" - (1979), Beaudine Croft

"Sunday in the Park with George" - (1986), Georges Seurat/George

"Chicago Hope" - Dr. Jeffrey Geiger (Emmy Award, 1994-95)

"The Hunchback" (TV version) (1997) - Quasimodo

"The Larry Sanders Show" - Himself

"Law & Order" - Levi March in 'Absentia' (Season 13, episode 290)

"The Simpsons" - Hugh Parkfield in 'Lisa's Wedding' (Season 6, episode 619)

"Touched By An Angel" - Satan in Netherlands (single-episode guest star) (Season 7, episode 23)

"Broken Glass" (1996) - Dr. Harry Hyman

"Strange Justice" (1999) - Kenneth Duberstein

"Dead Like Me" (2003-2004) - Rube Sofer

"NTSB: The Crash of Flight 323" (2004) - Al Cummings

"Criminal Minds" - (2005-2007) Jason Gideon (show's star seasons 1, 2 & two ep season 3)

;Television commercials

7 Up (1970)

Frosted Mini-Wheats (1971) (the first Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats commercial)

Crestor (2006) (a statin drug that lowers LDL Cholesterol)

Discography

"Evita" (1978)

"Sunday in the Park with George" (1984)

"Mandy Patinkin" (1989)

"Dress Casual" (1990)

"The Secret Garden" (1991)

"Experiment" (1994)

"Oscar & Steve" (1995)

"Mamaloshen" (1998)

"The Wild Party" (2000)

"Kidults" (2001)

"Mandy Patinkin sings Sondheim" (2002)

Patinkin can also be heard in Adam Guettel's "Myths and Hymns, "the Placido Domingo-starring studio cast recording of "Man of La Mancha" (1996), the Leonard Bernstein compilation "Leonard Bernstein's New York" (1996), Madonna's album "I'm Breathless" (1990), the studio cast recording of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific (1986), and the concert version of Sondheim´s Follies in "Follies in Concert" (1985).