On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, Tony® and Emmy® Award winning actor Mandy Patinkin will receive the coveted Prince Rainier III Award for his outstanding contribution to the arts at the Princess Grace Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. The Princess Grace Foundation-USA will host this event and present Princess Grace Awards to emerging artists in theater, dance and film, as well as two Princess Grace Statue Awards to artists who have previously won Awards and have shown achievement and growth in their respective fields. Every year, the Princess Grace Foundation-USA proudly awards these grants at its annual Awards Gala to support its mission of providing crucial support to emerging artists in America. The Gala will take place in the presence of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Mandy Patinkin's accomplished artistic career spans many years and artistic genres including theater, film, concert performance and albums. Mr. Patinkin recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of performing his critically acclaimed solo concerts Dress Casual, Celebrating Sondheim and Mamaloshen, in rep with a two-week run at New York's Public Theater, the very space he began his concert career twenty years ago. He continues to tour his solo concerts extensively, through the US, Canada, London and Australia. In his 1980 Broadway debut, Mandy won a Tony® Award for his role as Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita and was nominated in 1984 for his starring role as George in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George and again in 2000 for The Wild Party. In 1997 he played a sold-out engagement of his one-man concert, Mandy Patinkin in Concert, with all profits benefiting five charitable organizations. He won a 1995 Emmy® Award for his critically acclaimed performance in the CBS series "Chicago Hope," and recently starred in the CBS series "Criminal Minds." Feature films include The Adventures of Elmo In Grouchland, The Princess Bride, Yentl, The Music of Chance, Ragtime, Impromptu, The Doctor, Alien Nation, Dick Tracy and Maxie. His solo albums include Mandy Patinkin, Mandy Patinkin Dress Casual, and on the Nonesuch label - Experiment, Oscar and Steve, Mamaloshen, Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim and Kidults. The recording of Mamaloshen, a collection of traditional, classic and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish, won the Deutschen Schallplattenpreis, Germany's equivalent of the Grammy Award. In October 2007, Mandy debuted his newest concert with dear friend Patti LuPone and they begin touring their show An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin throughout the US, Australia and New Zealand.
Past recipients of the Prince Rainier III Award, which honors the memory of Prince Rainier by recognizing celebrated artists whose own exemplary careers are coupled with outstanding contributions to the arts, include: Glenn Close (2008), George Lucas (2007), Twyla Tharp (2006), and Mikhail Baryshnikov (2005, inaugural award).
At the Gala, the Princess Grace Foundation-USA will present 22 Princess Grace Awards, 10 Honoraria, seven Special Project Grants, two Works in Progress Residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and two Princess Grace Statue Awards. Since its inception, the Foundation has bestowed more 650 awards totaling more than $7 million in grants. Tony® and Emmy Award nominated actress Martha Plimpton will present the Theater Awards. For a complete list of Awards winners, please visit www.pgfusa.org.
Chairs for the Awards Gala are Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Hilfiger. The Awards Gala Presenting Sponsor is Hermès and the Crown Sponsors are American Airlines, Mrs. Lily Safra and Noelle and Dick Wolf.
