1975–1988: Breakthrough and stardom

Patinkin starred in Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984) based off the painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

After some television-commercial and radio appearances (including on CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1974), Patinkin started his career on the New York stage in 1975, starring in Trelawny of the 'Wells' as Arthur Gower. Patinkin starred alongside Meryl Streep, who played Imogen Parrott, and John Lithgow, who played Ferdinand Gadd. Clive Barnes of The New York Times praised the production writing, "The production looks beautiful and, indeed, still charms".^[16] From 1975 through 1976, Patinkin played the Player King and Fortinbras, Prince of Norway in a Broadway revival of Hamlet, with Sam Waterston in the leading role. In 1977 he starred in the play The Shadow Box written by Michael Cristofer. He had his first film role as a Pool Man in the political comedy The Big Fix (1978) starring Richard Dreyfus, John Lithgow, and F. Murray Abraham. The following year he acted in the coming of age romantic comedy French Postcards and the neo-noir Last Embrace.

Patinkin had his first success in musical theater when he played Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, which starred Patti LuPone, on Broadway in 1979.^[1][17] Walter Kerr of The New York Times described his performance as "vigorous".^[18] James Lardner of The Washington Post wrote, "Patinkin gives a sympathetic, consistent and rather sweet performance".^[19] Patinkin won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance. He also received a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.^[1][2][17] Patinkin took film roles in Milos Forman's historical drama Ragtime (1980) playing Tateh and Sidney Lumet's drama Daniel (1983) portraying Paul Isaacson.

Patinkin won acclaim for his role as an Orthodox Jewish man Avigdor in Barbra Streisand's romantic drama epic Yentl (1983), which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.^[2] Richard Corliss of Time praised his performance but criticized Streisand's choice to not have him sing in the film. Corliss wrote, "For her male co-star she hired Mandy Patinkin, who has wrapped his crystalline Broadway tenor voice around Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber, then gave him no songs to sing".^[20] Veron Scott of United Press International wrote, "When Patinkin is in a scene it is difficult to focus on anyone else, including Streisand who is at her very best in Yentl. He plays profound, passionate men of action."^[21] Patinkin noted that both Ragtime (1981) and Daniel (1983) weren't as successful as he had hoped commercially and critically saying, "When you care about the content of a film, you want people to see it". He stated he had a positive experience working with Streisand saying, "'She tried to overcome her superstardom to make me feel comfortable. She worked hard to get to know me for what I am." Patinkin also was able to explore his Jewish roots while making the film saying, "I also spent a couple of weeks in Ohr Semach in Jerusalem at a yeshiva, studying the Talmud and attending lectures. The experience awakened many thoughts and feelings that had been sleeping in me for some time."^[22]

Patinkin returned to Broadway in 1984 to star in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George,^[23] in which he played the pointillist artist Georges Seurat and his fictional great-grandson George.^[12] He acted opposite Bernadette Peters and earned nominations for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.^[2][23] Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote, "Seurat, here embodied commandingly by Mandy Patinkin, could well be a stand-in for Mr. Sondheim, who brings the same fierce, methodical intellectual precision to musical and verbal composition that the artist brought to his pictorial realm."^[24] His performance was captured on film and shown on television as a part of American Playhouse. The following year he took the role of Buddy Plummer in Follies: In Concert at Lincoln Center.

Patinkin's costume for Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride (1987)

In 1985 Patinkin took a leading role in the romantic fantasy comedy Maxie opposite Glenn Close. Variety gave the film a mixed review but praised Patinkin writing, "Much of the credit for keeping [Maxie] alive must go to Mandy Patinkin, who shows himself to be a good-looking leading man with a rare light touch for romantic comedy."^[25] In 1987, Patinkin played Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride, playing the role of the best swordsman in the country, looking to avenge his father's death.^[12] Patinkin acted opposite Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Andre the Giant, and Billy Crystal. Variety praised his performance writing, "Patinkin especially is a joy to watch and the film comes to life when his longhaired, scruffy cavalier is on screen."^[26] His character has earned a cult following and his memorable line "My Name is Inigo Montoya, You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die" was ranked as one of IGN's best movie moments.^[27] The following year in 1988 he acted in the science fiction action film Alien Nation directed by Graham Baker and the neo-noir film The House on Carroll Street directed by Peter Yates.

1989–2004: Established actor

Over the next decade, he continued to appear in movies, including Warren Beatty's action crime comedy Dick Tracy (1990) and Herbert Ross's political comedy True Colors (1991). He also portrayed Alfred de Musset in James Lapine's period drama Impromptu (1991) starring Hugh Grant, Judy Davis, Emma Thompson, and reunited with Bernadette Peters. Dessen Howe of The Washington Post described his performance writing "he makes an effective comic catalyst".^[28]

On Broadway, Patinkin appeared in the musical The Secret Garden in 1991 and was nominated for the 1991 Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actor in a Musical.^[29] He also released two solo albums, titled Mandy Patinkin (1989)^[30] and Dress Casual (1990).^[31] In 1994, Patinkin took the role of Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on CBS's Chicago Hope^[2] for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. However, despite the award and the ratings success of the show, Patinkin left the show during the second season because he was unhappy spending so much time away from his wife and children.^[32] He returned to the show in 1999 at the beginning of the sixth season, but it was canceled 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. That same year Patinkin returned to theatre this time Broadway musical The Wild Party (2000) portraying Burrs acting opposite Toni Collette as Queenie. The vaudeville like production is based on the 1928 Joseph Moncure March narrative poem of the same name. For his performance he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

During this time he guest-starred in The Simpsons in the episode "Lisa's Wedding" (1995) as Hugh Parkfield, Lisa's future English groom and in The Larry Sanders Show (1996) for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. He also acted in numerous films such as the drama The Doctor (1991), The Music of Chance (1993), the comedy Life with Mikey (1993), the action adventure Squanto: A Warrior's Tale (1994), and the romantic mystery Lulu on the Bridge (1998). After turning down the role in the Walt Disney Animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), he portrayed Quasimodo in the TNT television film The Hunchback (1997) acting opposite Salma Hayek, and Richard Harris. John O'Connor from The New York Times praised his performance writing, "[Patinkin] is surprisingly restrained...His Quasimodo is a gentle and quite moving creature, shyly hiding his facial disfigurations in the shadows". Connor praised the production writing that its "oddly old-fashioned, paying a kind of homage, as does Mr. Patinkin's performance, to the Laughton film."^[33]

Mamaloshen, Patinkin's musical production of songs sung entirely in Yiddish, premiered in 1998. He has performed the show on Broadway and in venues around the United States. The recorded version won a Deutscher Schallplattenpreis award in Germany.^[34] In 1999, Patinkin co-starred in the second Sesame Street film, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, as Huxley, an abusive, childish, sadistic, and greedy man with abnormally large eyebrows, who steals whatever he can grab and then claims it as his own.^[35][36]

Patinkin returned to Broadway in 2000 in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party, earning another Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.^[37] In 2003 he dubbed a voice in the Walt Disney re-release of Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky. From 2003 to 2004, he appeared 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.

2005–2020: Criminal Minds and Homeland

Patinkin outside the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 2012

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, in the CBS crime-drama television series Criminal Minds.^[1] 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. He left apologetic letters for his fellow cast members explaining his reasons and wishing them luck. 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 later called his choice to do Criminal Minds his "biggest public mistake" and stated that he "thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality. After that, I didn't think I would get to work in television again."^[38]

Patinkin spoke of having planned to tour the world with a musical and wanting to inject more comedy into the entertainment business.^[39] In later episodes of Criminal Minds, during the 2007–08 season, Jason Gideon was written out of the series and replaced by Special Agent David Rossi (played by Joe Mantegna). Gideon was later officially killed off, ending all chances of a guest appearance by Patinkin on the show. In 2008 Patinkin portrayed Prospero in a off-Broadway musical production of The Tempest opposite Elisabeth Waterston and Michael Potts. Marilyn Stasio of Variety wrote, "Patinkin has a beautiful voice, as warm and golden as honey spooned from a jar -- the perfect voice to sing us through "The Tempest," the most musical of Shakespeare's late plays."^[40] 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 with Lou Gehrig's disease injured in a car accident who asks the doctors at Three Rivers Hospital to take him off life support so his organs can be donated. He filmed an appearance on The Whole Truth that had been scheduled to air December 15, 2010, but ABC pulled the series from its schedule two weeks prior.^[41] That same year he acted in the British crime drama 4.3.2.1. (2010) acting opposite Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, and Helen McCrory.

Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening, Patinkin, and Olivia Cooke at the TIFF in 2018

He starred in the new musical Paradise Found, co-directed by Harold Prince and Susan Stroman, at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. The musical played a limited engagement from May 2010 through June 26, 2010.^[42] Patinkin and Patti LuPone performed their concert An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin on Broadway for a limited 63-performance run starting November 21, 2011, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, and ending on January 13, 2012. The concert marked the first time the pair had performed together on Broadway since appearing in Evita.^[43][44]

He costarred with Claire Danes on the Showtime series Homeland, which aired from 2011 until 2020.^[45][46] He portrays counterterrorism operative Saul Berenson, protagonist Carrie Mathison's (Danes) mentor. For his performance, Patinkin has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, among other honors. Explaining what he learned from the character, he stated, "The line between good and evil runs through each one of us."^[47]

Patinkin was announced as playing the role of Pierre in the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 starting August 15, 2017.^[48] He was to have a limited run through September 3, replacing former Hamilton star Okieriete Onaodowan,^[49] but Patinkin dropped out of the role before performing.^[50] In 2018, Patinkin returned to recorded music with the album Diary: January 27, 2018 which was produced by pianist Thomas Bartlett.^[51] He voiced Papa Smurf in the live-action comedy film Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) opposite Demi Lovato, Rainn Wilson, and Julia Roberts. During this time he also took roles in the animated film The Wind Rises (2013), the comedy-drama Wish I Was Here (2014), the family film Wonder (2017), the drama Life Itself (2018), and the comedy Before You Know It (2019).

2021–present

In 2021 he was part of the main cast of the legal drama series The Good Fight on CBS. The following year he voiced Benjamin Franklin in the Ken Burns documentary series Benjamin Franklin on PBS. Paul Giamatti voiced John Adams and Liam Neeson voiced Alexander Wedderburn. In 2022, Patinkin was the narrator of the miniseries Indivisible: Healing Hate,^[52] a Paramount+ show documenting the events that led to the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

Marriage and family

Patinkin married actress and writer Kathryn Grody on April 15, 1980.^[53] They have two sons, Isaac and Gideon. Gideon joined his father onstage in Dress Casual in 2011.^[54]

Health

Patinkin suffered from keratoconus, a progressive eye condition, in the mid-1990s. This led to two corneal transplants, his right cornea in 1997 and his left in 1998.^[55] He was also diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer in 2004. He celebrated his first year of recovery in 2005 by doing a 265-mile (426 km) charity bike ride with his son, Isaac – the Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride: Cycling for Peace, Partnership & Environmental Protection.^[56]

Religion and activism

Patinkin has described himself as "Jewish with a dash of Buddhist" belief. On the Canadian radio program Q, Patinkin called himself a "JewBu" because of this mix of beliefs^[57] and "spiritual but not religious".^[58] 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.^[59] He also wrote introductions for two books on Jewish culture, The Jewish American Family Album, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, and Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Holiday Cookbook: A Jewish Family's Celebrations, by his mother, Doralee Patinkin Rubin. In May 2012, Patinkin delivered the opening speech at the Annual Convention of the Israeli Left, where he recounted his experiences during a visit to the West Bank with members of the Breaking the Silence organization.^[60]

On December 21, 2015, on Charlie Rose on PBS, Patinkin spoke about his recent trip to Greece to help refugees from war-torn Syria and his acting role in the television series Homeland. He stated that he wanted to help "create opportunity and better systems of living and existing, to give freedom, justice and dignity, quality of life to humanity all over the world."^[61]

Patinkin contributed to the children's book Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again: A Musical Storybook, inspired by Christopher Reeve. The award-winning book, published in 2005, benefits the Christopher Reeve Foundation and includes an audio CD with Patinkin singing and reading the story as well as Dana Reeve and Bernadette Peters singing.^[62]

Interests

In 2020, Patinkin's and Grody's son, Gideon, began filming and photographing their daily lives, posting images and clips to multiple social media outlets. The couple soon developed a significant social media following.^[63] Later that year, Grody and Patinkin partnered with Swing Left, creating viral videos with their sons to encourage people to vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election.^[64] Patinkin also stumped for Biden in an ad for the Jewish Democratic Council of America encouraging Jews to vote for Biden. The ad featured Patinkin channeling his Princess Bride character to encourage people to vote.^[65] Patinkin is a model railroader.^[66]

Film

Television