Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/175878
Chicago Showman the He's sung on Broadway with Patti LuPone, swashbuckled his way through The Princess Bride, and now plays the sage conscience of the hottest show on television. As the Emmy-winning Homeland enters its third season, Mandy Patinkin reflects on his richly varied career and his Windy City roots in an exclusive interview with Michigan Avenue. .. M andy Patinkin might just be the most talented man working in television today. A Tony winner in 1980 for originating the role of Che Guevara in Evita, he's also demonstrated serious chops in films like The Princess Bride and Dick Tracy and has gained legions of fans as a vocalist and touring concert performer with seven solo albums under his belt. But it's on TV where the Chicago native has really made his mark, winning a 1995 Emmy Award for Chicago Hope, starring for two seasons on CBS's Criminal Minds, and—in a role that may come to define his career— delivering a masterful performance as Saul Berenson on Showtime's breakout hit Homeland. And though his career took him to New York more than 40 years ago, Patinkin still feels a passionate connection to the Windy City, where his talent as a performer was first honed on the stage of the Young Men's Jewish Council Center on the South Side. In an intimate chat with Michigan Avenue, Patinkin waxes nostalgic about his youth, muses on some of his iconic roles, and looks ahead to the future. 110 You were raised on the South Side. How do you think growing up in Chicago has influenced your career? Well, it's home base. All my roots were planted in Chicago; that's where the tree grew. I love being there first and foremost because my father is buried there. I like going to the cemetery to be near him and visit him. And I go back to the old neighborhood even though it's somewhat of a dangerous area now, on the South Side in South Shore.... 8132 Philips, 6723 Ogilvie, 8218 Grand....Kenwood High School's first graduating class, which I was in. The South Shore High School, Harvard St. George—all these places I lived, and most of all Congregation Rodfei Zedek at 52nd and South Hyde Park Boulevard. I lived at that synagogue from age 7 until 14 or 15—and every minute of my life was practically spent there. I made out all the time at the Planetarium on the oceanside—the best make-out spot I can ever remember. The biggest place of my life was the youth center on the South Side, the Young Men's Jewish Council Center. That's where I fell in love with the theater and realized this is what I wanted to do.... I also remember MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 110-115_MA_FEAT_CoverStory_October13.indd 110 9/17/13 1:25 PM