I know, I know. The image breaks the theme. But it’s where I think of him first, even though I saw him as Inigo Montoya first. (Actually, I saw Yentl first—you know, the musical where they cast Mandy Patinkin and then didn’t have him sing? But yeah.) He likes Inigo best, and I can’t honestly say I like George all that much, though he improves as Second Act George, but still. He still has fans asking him to say The Line, and that’s great, but I’d really want him to sing a few lines of “Finishing the Hat” to me, if I had a choice.

I suppose you can be a huge fan of Frosted Mini Wheats and remember him from being in the first commercial for them, and consider it to have started two stars’ careers. You’d have to be pretty weird, but you could do that. Considerably more likely you’d remember him as Evita‘s original Che, for which he won a Tony. Chicago Hope. Homeland. Criminal Minds, which he didn’t like very much. He’s a delight as 88 Keys in Dick Tracy. And surprisingly good as Huxley in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. But then, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him be bad in anything, and my goodness but I could keep listing things he’s done.

Personally, I think the disappointing bit about the focus on Inigo is that Inigo, of course, doesn’t sing. He fences, of course, and apparently the work Patinkin put into learning to really fence is astonishing. He had more training than Cary Elwes, and not just because Cary Elwes was on camera more often and therefore spent less time practicing on set. He started training before getting there. And the work shows, in the sense that it doesn’t show how hard he was working. The fencing shows the kind of dedication that Mandy Patinkin puts into everything he does, from what I can tell.

But he doesn’t sing. He doesn’t sing, he doesn’t sing. I don’t know if he can sing in the Inigo voice, and I’d be kind of fascinated to find out, but what I want from him is singing. “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)” may be Stephen Sondheim’s only Oscar, but for my money, the best song from the movie is “What Can You Lose,” the duet between Madonna and Mandy, the glorious and sultry number that may well be seen as just slowing the movie right down but is still, in my opinion, one of its best moments. I like Antonio Banderas as Che quite a lot, but Patinkin, too. And my Gods, but George.

He’s a fine actor and as fine an example as I can name as to why the Big Budget Hollywood Musical should make a comeback. He shouldn’t be just Inigo Montoya. That said, there are certainly worse roles for everyone to know you from, and at least it’s one that he himself loves as well. And apparently, he will say The Line, if you ask him to. No word, so far as I know, as to whether he’ll sing you a few lines of “Finishing the Hat.”

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