Mandy Patinkin is an American actor best known for his portrayals of Jason Gideon in Criminal Minds and Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.
Background
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 Cheers were auditioning for the role of Dr. Frasier Crane, Patinkin was the one who put Grammer's name forward.
Personal Life
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.
Filmography
Stage
As Inigo Monoya in The Princess Bride
- 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
- 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)
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)[2]
- The Hunchback (TV version) (1997) – Quasimodo
- Dead Like Me – Rube John Sofer
- 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[2]
- Strange Justice (1999) – Kenneth Duberstein
- NTSB: The Crash of Flight 323 (2004) – Al Cummings
- Criminal Minds – (2005-2007) Jason Gideon