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Mandy Patinkin

 
American Theater Guide: Mandy Patinkin
 
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Patinkin, Mandy [né Mandel Bruce Patinkin] (b. 1947), actor and singer. The magnetic performer of intense or flamboyant characters is a nontraditional leading man who can play both experimental and Shakespearean roles with equal panache. He was born in Chicago and educated at the University of Kansas and Juilliard before working several years in regional theatre. Patinkin made his New York debut Off Broadway in 1974 and three years later was noticed on Broadway as the despondent lover Mark in the drama The Shadow Box (1977). But his most successful stage appearances were in musicals, such as the wry commentator Che in Evita (1979), the two artists named George in Sunday in the Park with George (1984), the sullen uncle Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden (1991), and the self‐destructive vaudevillian Burrs in The Wild Party (2000).

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Artist: Mandy Patinkin
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Biography

Actor/singer Mandy Patinkin carved out a varied career onstage, in films, in the recording studio, and on television. Though he was possessed of a flexible tenor voice with a wide range and was known for his bravura performing style, few of his movie appearances made use of his musical ability, and he was more widely known as a dramatic actor on television than anything else. Nevertheless, he was one of the major American musical theater performers of his generation.

Patinkin first developed an interest in acting and singing while growing up in Chicago. He attended the University of Kansas, then the Juilliard School of Drama in New York City, leaving without a degree when he was able to find enough stage work to turn professional. During the second half of the 1970s, he was closely associated with the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Public Theater, performing in many of the celebrated theater company's productions, on and off Broadway. He made his film debut in 1978, playing a small part in The Big Fix.

Patinkin's first significant appearance in a musical came with the Public Theater's brief off-Broadway production of Leave It to Beaver Is Dead (March 29, 1979). He got his big break later the same year when he was cast as Che in the Broadway production of Evita (Sep 25, 1979), a role that won him the Tony Award; he was featured on the original Broadway cast album, which sold over a million copies.

In the late '70s and early '80s, Patinkin appeared in a series of non-singing parts in films, gradually gaining more prominent roles: Last Embrace (1979); French Postcards (1979); Night of the Juggler (1980); Ragtime (1981); Daniel (1983); and Yentl (1983). Then he made a triumphant return to the Broadway stage, starring in the musical Sunday in the Park with George (May 2, 1984). He was nominated for another Tony and appeared on the original Broadway cast album, which reached the charts. (In 1986, the show was videotaped and broadcast on the Showtime cable network, later earning release as a home video.) Further, his performance established him as an important interpreter of the music of Stephen Sondheim, Broadway's most respected songwriter, and he consolidated that status with his appearance in a concert version of Sondheim's 1971 musical Follies performed and recorded in September 1985; the album reached the charts in 1986.

Though Patinkin continued to appear in non-singing roles in the movies -- Maxie (1985), a particularly memorable performance in the romantic comedy The Princess Bride (1987), Alien Nation (1988), The House on Carroll Street (1988) -- his opportunities as a singer increased in the second half of the 1980s. He was contracted for a series of studio cast recordings of Broadway musicals by CBS Masterworks including South Pacific (1986), Man of La Mancha (1990), and Kismet (1991). This association led to his being signed as a recording artist by CBS, which released his debut album Mandy Patinkin, in 1989. He accompanied the release with his own one-man show, Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Dress Casual (July 25, 1989), which opened at the Public Theater and transferred for a limited run on Broadway. His second album, Dress Casual, was released the following year.

Patinkin got his first chance to sing onscreen with his appearance in Dick Tracy in 1990. Though the film had no formal soundtrack album, Madonna, one of its stars, issued an album of her songs from it, I'm Breathless, on which Patinkin was featured. Released in May 1990, the album went multi-platinum. This was a busy acting time for him, as he had parts in three films released in 1991, True Colors, The Doctor, and Impromptu (the last marking the movie directing debut of James Lapine, the librettist and director of Sunday in the Park with George).

Patinkin made occasional stage appearances during this period, but he returned to Broadway in a big way with the successful musical The Secret Garden (April 25, 1991), also appearing on the original Broadway cast album. After leaving the show, Patinkin stayed on Broadway by stepping in as a replacement cast member in the musical Falsettos. By this time, he had become a sufficiently prominent figure in the musical theater to attract not only praise, but also criticism. Fans adored his energetic, committed style, which reminded some of the days of Al Jolson and Ethel Merman. Detractors criticized him for the same tendencies, which they found exaggerated, and Forbidden Broadway, the long-running satiric musical revue, crystallized the charge of hamminess in its Patinkin parody, set to the tune of "Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious" from Mary Poppins, "Super-Frantic, Hyper-Active, Self-Indulgent Mandy" (found on Forbidden Broadway, Vol. 2, 1991).

Patinkin returned to films in Life With Mikey (1993), The Music of Chance (1993), and Squanto: A Warrior's Tale (1994), and switching to Nonesuch Records, he released his third album, Experiment, in May 1994. But his career entered a new phase when he agreed to a role on a new network television series, playing Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on the hospital drama Chicago Hope, which premiered September 18, 1994. The show was a hit, and Patinkin won an Emmy Award, but he left the program early in its second season largely due to family considerations; now married and having started a family, he was based in New York, while the show filmed in Los Angeles. (He returned to Chicago Hope on an occasional basis, however, even becoming a semi-regular during the 1999-2000 season, the show's last year on the air.)

Patinkin released his fourth album, Oscar & Steve, a tribute to Oscar Hammerstein II and Stephen Sondheim, in October 1995. His career was slowed by eye trouble in the mid-'90s, and in 1996 he underwent a corneal transplant, enduring a second one in 1998. Nevertheless, he managed to appear in several films, among them Men With Guns (1997), Lulu on the Bridge (1998), and Elmo in Grouchland (1999) (even getting to sing in the last). In February 1998, he released his fifth album, Mamaloshen, which found him singing traditional and other material in Yiddish. He returned to Broadway in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of The Wild Party (Apr 13, 2000), which earned him another Tony nomination and an appearance on the original Broadway cast album, though the musical closed after two months. ~ William Ruhlmann ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Discography

Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim

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Actor: Mandy Patinkin
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  • Born: Nov 30, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Princess Bride, Sunday in the Park with George, Ragtime
  • First Major Screen Credit: Ragtime (1981)

Biography

Intense, dynamic Julliard alumnus Mandy Patinkin tackled everything from ancient classics to modern musicals during his formative years in regional theatre. From 1975 through 1981, Patinkin was a mainstay of Joseph Papps New York Shakespeare Festival. Making his Broadway debut in 1977, Patinkin won a Tony Award three years later for his raw-nerved portrayal of Che Guevara ("Not much to ask for!") in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. He later appeared as star-interlocutor in Stephen Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George, a role he repeated for the benefit of future generations on a videotaped TV presentation in 1986. In films from 1977, Patinkin made his earliest impression on moviegoers in a brace of E. L. Doctorow adaptations: he played the immigrant-artist-turned-pioneer filmmaker in Ragtime (1981) and the Julius Rosenberg counterpart in Daniel (1983). He also portrayed Avigdor, Barbra Streisand's dream lover, in Yentl (1983), and essayed the part of a Spanish swashbuckler (with a hilariously impenetrable accent) in The Princess Bride (1985). His extensive musical skills, both as vocalist and instrumentalist, have gone virtually untapped in films, save for his turn as 88 Keys in Dick Tracy (1990). The scope of Patinkin's musical talents were generously displayed in his one-man show Dress Casual, and also in his many "concert recordings" of classic Broadway scores. Despite his devotion to his craft, Mandy Patinkin evidently has his head on straight in terms of priorities: in 1996, he gave up the meaty role of Dr. Jeffrey Geiger in the weekly TV medical series Chicago Hope because he didn't like spending so much time away from his wife (actress Kathryn Grody) and children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
 
Wikipedia: Mandy Patinkin
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Mandy Patinkin

Mandy Patinkin, June 2008
Born Mandel Bruce Patinkin
November 30, 1952 (1952-11-30) (age 56)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation Actor
Spouse(s) Kathryn Grody (1980-present)
Official website

Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin (pronounced /pəˈtɪŋkɨn/; Hebrew: מנחם מנדל‎) (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 and Dick Tracy.

Contents

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,[5][2][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.[2][1] 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.

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.[10]

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
Other theater

Filmography

Film

Television

Television commercials

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. http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/10835327. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Meet a guy called Mandy". Jewish Chronicle. 17 May 1996. http://www.mandypatinkin.net/ARTICLES/jchron2.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 
  3. ^ "Mandy Patinkin Biography". filmreference. 2008. http://www.filmreference.com/film/44/Mandy-Patinkin.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 
  4. ^ a b "Mandy Patinkin Biography". Yahoo! Movies. 2008. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800015208/bio. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 
  5. ^ Danielle Berrin (31 January 2008). "Sondheim and Yiddish songs are ‘like prayer’ for Patinkin". JewishJournal. http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=18847. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 
  6. ^ "A Lifetime of Seders". JewishJournal. http://www.jewishjournal.com/old/mandypatinkin.4.14.0.htm. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 
  7. ^ "Patinkin may be losing his 'Minds'". The Hollywood Reporter. 13 July 2007. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i47021a7b93e549669f2349d5e04cfa1c?imw=Y. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 
  8. ^ "Criminal Minds, Mandy Patinkin Confirm Parting of Ways". TVGuide. http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-News-Blog/Todays-News/Criminal-Minds-Mandy/800018648. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 
  9. ^ http://monacorevue.com/people/iv1070830.php Videotaped interview with Monaco Revue
  10. ^ "The Helpful Doo-its Project". Dooits-CReeve. http://www.dooits.com/christopher_reeve.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. 

External links

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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series

Peter Falk (1976) · James Garner (1977) · Edward Asner (1978) · Ron Leibman (1979) · Edward Asner (1980) · Daniel J. Travanti (1981) · Daniel J. Travanti (1982) · Ed Flanders (1983) · Tom Selleck (1984) · William Daniels (1985) · William Daniels (1986) · Bruce Willis (1987) · Richard Kiley (1988) · Carroll O'Connor (1989) · Peter Falk (1990) · James Earl Jones (1991) · Christopher Lloyd (1992) · Tom Skerritt (1993) · Dennis Franz (1994) · Mandy Patinkin (1995) · Dennis Franz (1996) · Dennis Franz (1997) · Andre Braugher (1998) · Dennis Franz (1999) · James Gandolfini (2000)
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

Sammy Williams (1976) · Lenny Baker (1977) · Kevin Kline (1978) · Henderson Forsythe (1979) · Mandy Patinkin (1980) · Hinton Battle (1981) · Cleavant Derricks (1982) · Charles Coles (1983) · Hinton Battle (1984) · Ron Richardson (1985) · Michael Rupert (1986) · Michael Maguire (1987) · Bill McCutcheon (1988) · Scott Wise (1989) · Michael Jeter (1990) · Hinton Battle (1991) · Scott Waara (1992) · Anthony Crivello (1993) · Jarrod Emick (1994) · George Hearn (1995) · Wilson Jermaine Heredia (1996) · Chuck Cooper (1997) · Ron Rifkin (1998) · Roger Bart (1999) · Boyd Gaines (2000)

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American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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