Cancer “is the greatest gift I’ve ever been given, other than my wife and children,” says Mandy Patinkin.
Patinkin, who returns to CBS this fall in “Criminal Minds,” will deliver the keynote address Friday at the seventh annual “Celebration of Hope” conference sponsored by the Wellness Community of Philadelphia.
The 51-year-old actor-singer was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March ’04 while in Vancouver shooting his Showtime dark comedy, “Dead Like Me.” (The irony didn’t escape him.)
Two months later, he underwent surgery in New York to remove his prostate gland. “The minute” it was over, Patinkin says, his surgeon told him he had removed all the cancer. The patient wasn’t going to die.
“The rest of my life has been a gift,” he says. “It sounds corny, but I look at sunsets differently. I look at every day differently. I embrace every moment. I’ve learned to say yes instead of no. I don’t worry about stupid stuff. I’m less neurotic.”
The “less neurotic” part was in motion before the cancer, he adds.
In late “03, after years of battling depression and spending enough money on meds “to buy a small country,” Patinkin went off the pills, ditched his therapist and began to meditate daily.
“Criminal Minds” follows an elite squad of FBI profilers. It is Patinkin’s first broadcast series since CBS’s “94-00 “Chicago Hope,” in which he played brilliant, charm-free surgeon Jeffrey Geiger.
Co-stars include “Dharma & Greg’s” Thomas Gibson and Shemar Moore (“The Young and the Restless”).
Patinkin’s character is a top profiler who has been brought back from a six-month “retirement.” He had suffered a nervous breakdown after making a mistake that resulted in the deaths of six agents.
The show fell into Patinkin’s lap. In L.A. for meetings about possible film roles, he was handed two CBS pilot scripts by his agent.
He read “Criminal” first. Liking it, he met with the producers, thought it over, then signed on. (He never read the second script.) “I felt these people were as good as anybody to get in bed with.”
Because both their sons are grown, Patinkin and his wife, actress Kathryn Grody, will be together in L.A. She may pop up as a guest star, too.
Patinkin continues to do concerts, but not long tours. The events “are wonderful exposure and help support lots of people in my life,” but he prefers TV.
“If I had all the money and fame in the world, I’d probably still grab a series. I like being in an ensemble. I enjoy going to work every day. It’s fun for me. It’s the work I was trained to do.”
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(c) 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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AP-NY-06-03-05 2003EDT
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