Nov 30: Broadway, Movie and TV star "Mandy" Patinkin is 58 today.

Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin, who was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1952,  is a actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist.

Patinkin is a noted interpreter of the music of Stephen Sondheim and is known for his work in musical theatre, originating iconic roles such as Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George, Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden and Burrs in The Wild Party. He has also appeared in television series such as Chicago Hope, Dead Like Me and the first two seasons of Criminal Minds.

Mandy attended South Shore High School, Kenwood Academy, the University of Kansas, and Juilliard School of Drama. At Juilliard, he was a classmate of Kelsey Grammer. When the producers of the popular American sitcom Cheers were auditioning for the role of Dr. Frasier Crane, Patinkin suggested Grammer be considered for the part.

With Patti Lupone from "Evita"

After a few TV commercial and radio appearances, including the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1974, Patinkin had his first success in musical theater, where he played the part of Che in Evita on Broadway in 1979. Patinkin went on to win that year's Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical.

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He then moved to film, playing parts in movies such as Yentl and Ragtime. He returned to Broadway in 1984 to star in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George, which saw him earn another Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

Patinkin played Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner's 1987 The Princess Bride  - which Patinkin considers his favorite role.

Over the next decade he continued to appear in various movies, such as Dick Tracy and Alien Nation. On Broadway, over the next decade, he appeared in the Tony Award-winning musical The Secret Garden for 706 performances.

He also released two solo albums, titled Mandy Patinkin and Dress Casual.

In 1994, he took the role of Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on Chicago Hope for which he won an Emmy Award. However, despite the award and the ratings success of the show, Patinkin left the show during the second season. He returned in 1999 but it was later cancelled in 2000.

Since Chicago Hope, Patinkin has appeared in a number of films. However, he has mostly performed as a singer, releasing three more albums. In 1995 he guest starred in The Simpsons in the episode "Lisa's Wedding" as Hugh Parkfield, Lisa's future English groom.

In 1998, he debuted his most personal project, Mamaloshen, a collection of traditional, classic, and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish ("Mamaloshen" is Yiddish for "mother tongue.") The stage production of Mamaloshen was performed on and off–Broadway, and has toured throughout the country. The recording of Mamaloshen won the Deutschen Schallplattenpreis (Germany’s equivalent of the Grammy Award).

In 1999 he co-starred in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland as the villainous Huxley, who tries to steal Elmo's blanket.

He returned to Broadway in 2000 in the New York Shakespeare Festival's The Wild Party, earning another Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

Recently, he has also been seen in the Showtime comedy-drama Dead Like Me as Rube Sofer. In 2004, he played a six–week engagement of his one–man concert at the Off Broadway complex Dodger Stages.

In September 2005, he debuted in the role of Jason Gideon, an experienced profiler just coming back to work after a series of nervous breakdowns, in the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds.

He is starring in the new musical Paradise Found, co-directed by Harold Prince and Susan Stroman, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London.

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Nov. 30: "You Gotta' Be" Soul singer Des’ree is 42 today.

Des’ree, born Desiree Weeks on November 30, 1968 in London, England was one of Britain’s most successful pop/soul vocalists throughout the 1990s. She changed her name from Desiree Weeks because she preferred a two-syllable name.

In 1994 the hit single “You Gotta Be” hit Billboard Top 5 and was a hit in the UK three times. It also allowed Des’ree to break into America. “You Gotta Be” was also a major hit in the United States, and it was featured in the movie The Next Karate Kid, starring Hilary Swank.

The second song from Des’ree’s second album, “Crazy Maze” was featured in the movie Nothing to Lose. Coincidentally, her last album (“Dream Soldier”) featured a song entitled “Nothing to Lose.”

Her song “Kissing You” featured on the 1996 Baz Luhrman movie Romeo + Juliet and is generally considered to be one of her greatest works and a showcase for her distinctive and impressive vocals.

In 1999, she won a Brit Award for the British Female Solo Artist category. Her 2003 release Dream Soldier was considerably less successful.

Des'ree has not released any new material since 2003.

 

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Nov. 30: Luther Ingram "If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right" was born on this date in 1937...

... he died March 19, 2007.

Born Luther Thomas Ingram in Jackson, Tennessee, his early interest in music led to him making his first record in 1965 at the age of 28. His first three recordings failed to chart but that changed when he signed for KoKo Records in the late 1960s. Many of his songs appeared in the pop and R&B charts, even though Koko was only a small label.

Ingram is best known for the hit, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right. The song reached number one on Billboard's R&B chart, and peaked at number three on that publication's Hot 100 chart in 1972. The track stayed in the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, ultimately selling a reported four million copies/ The song was later successfully covered by Millie Jackson, Barbara Mandrell and Rod Stewart.

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Other popular Ingram songs include "Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)," "Let's Steal Away To The Hideaway" and "I'll Be Your Shelter." He also co-authored "Respect Yourself," a million seller for the Staples Singers in 1971. He was opening act for Isaac Hayes for some years and often used Hayes' Movement band and female backing group for his 70s' recordings.

He recorded into the 1980s. Although  he only managed lower R&B chart hits, he remained a popular stage draw.

Ingram died March 19, 2007 at a Belleville, Illinois, hospital of heart failure. He had suffered for years from diabetes, kidney disease and partial blindness.

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Nov. 30: Roger Clemens "Protege'" Country singer Mindy McCready is 35 today.

Born Melinda Gayle McCready in Fort Myers, Florida, McCready began singing in church at age 3, and graduated from high school at the age of 16 with the intention of beginning her music career early. Since 1996, Melinda Gayle "Mindy" McCready has recorded a total five studio albums.

When she was 18, she moved to Nashville, where she was signed by BNA Records. Her debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, was released in 1996 and sold two million copies. The album produced four chart singles on the country charts: the title track at #6, followed by her only Number One hit, "Guys Do It All the Time." This song, in turn, was succeeded by "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now," a duet with Richie McDonald, then the lead vocalist of Lonestar. The fourth and final single, "A Girl's Gotta Do (What a Girl's Gotta Do)," peaked at #4.

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In 1997, she released If I Don't Stay the Night was certified gold. 1999's I'm Not So Tough, did not sell that well, and she was dropped from the label. A self-titled fourth album followed in 2002 on Capitol Records.

In April 2008, the New York Daily News reported on a possible long-term relationship between McCready and baseball star Roger Clemens that began when she was 15 years old. Clemens' attorney denied the affair and also stated that Clemens would be bringing a defamation suit regarding this false allegation. Clemens' attorney admitted that a relationship existed, but described McCready as a "close family friend." He also stated that McCready had traveled on Clemens' personal jet and that Clemens' wife was aware of the relationship.

Clemens issued a statement saying only that "I have made mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry." However, McCready confirmed the relationship as being sexual in nature.

On November 17, 2008, McCready spoke in more detail to Inside Edition about her affair with Clemens. She stated that their relationship lasted for more than a decade, and that it ended when Clemens refused to leave his wife to marry McCready. However, she denied that she was 15 years old when it began, saying that they met when she was 16 and the affair only became sexual "several years later.

McCready's critically acclaimed fifth album, I'm Still Here, was released in March 2010.  (I guess a little publicity goes a long way.)

In June 2009, McCready signed on to appear on the reality series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

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