Mandy Patinkin

Actor/singer Mandy Patinkin carved out a varied career on-stage, 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...