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Mandy Patinkin

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Mandy Patinkin
Mandy Patinkin, June 2008
Born
Mandel Bruce Patinkin
OccupationActor
SpouseKathryn Grody (1980-present)
Websitehttp://www.mandypatinkin.net/

Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin (Template:Pron-en; [מנחם מנדל] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) (born November 30, 1952) is an American actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist.[1][2] 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.[3][4] His mother wrote Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Jewish Family Cookbook.[4] 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,[2][5][6] attending religion school daily "from the age of seven to 13 or 14" and singing in synagogue choirs.[2] 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,[1] 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.[1][2] He then moved to film, playing parts in movies such as Yentl [2] 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).[2]

Patinkin played Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner's 1987 The Princess Bride [2] (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 [2] 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[2] ("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.[1]

Patinkin was absent from a table read for Criminal Minds and did not return for a third season.[7] The departure from the show was not due to contractual or salary matters, but over creative differences.[1][8] 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.[9] 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.

On October 14, 2009, it was announced that Patinkin would be a guest-star on an episode of Three Rivers, which aired on November 15, 2009. He played a patient injured in a car accident who asks the doctors at Three Rivers hospital to pull him off life support so his organs can be donated. [10]

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 with 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.[11]

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

Filmography

Discography

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).

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Mandy, Patti-Real Cozy". Philadelphia Inquirer. 2 October. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Meet a guy called Mandy". Jewish Chronicle. 17 May 1996. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  3. ^ "Mandy Patinkin Biography". filmreference. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  4. ^ a b "Mandy Patinkin Biography". Yahoo! Movies. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  5. ^ Danielle Berrin (31 January 2008). "Sondheim and Yiddish songs are 'like prayer' for Patinkin". JewishJournal. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  6. ^ "A Lifetime of Seders". JewishJournal. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  7. ^ "Patinkin may be losing his 'Minds'". The Hollywood Reporter. 13 July 2007. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  8. ^ "Criminal Minds, Mandy Patinkin Confirm Parting of Ways". TVGuide. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  9. ^ http://monacorevue.com/people/iv1070830.php Videotaped interview with Monaco Revue
  10. ^ Natalie Abrams. "Mandy Patinkin to Guest-Star on Three Rivers". TVGuide.com.
  11. ^ "The Helpful Doo-its Project". Dooits-CReeve. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
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