Tony Winners: Some are Now On TV

Over the years there have been plenty of Tony Winners on TV: Rita Moreno on Oz; Cynthia Nixon on Sex & The City, Patti Lupone on Life Goes On; Nathan Lane on a couple failed sitcoms - just to name a few that come to mind. Today's tv offers no exception as Tony winners populate several great shows. Here are some Tony winners on current TV. Mandy Patinkin on Criminal Minds.This has been sort of a break out year for CBS murder-profiler show CriminalMinds, but not for Mandy Patinkin. Before TV audiences got to know him on Chicago Hope (for which he won an Emmy) in the 90s, Patinkin (also AKA Indigo Montoya from The Princess Bride) won a Tony Award back in 1980 for playing Che in Evita. Judd Hirsch on Numb3rs. Like Patinkin, Judd Hirsch who plays dad to genius David Krumholtz and FBI man Rob Morrow on Numb3rs - probably became a household name thanks to a TV role. He was, of course, Alex on Taxi. However, Hirsch is also a two time Tony winner. He has Tonys for his roles in Im Not Rappaport and Conversations With My Father. He has other Tony nominations to his credit, too. Edward Herrmann on The Gilmore Girls.Edward Herrmann currently plays patrician Richard Gilmore on the quirky CW hit The Gilmore Girls. He's also the narrator of just about every History Channel documentary out there, or so it seems. He won a Tony back in 1976 as a featured performer in Mrs. Warren's Profession. Kelly Bishop on The Gilmore Girls. Now here's this for a coincidence: Bishop, who plays Herrmann's wife on The Gilmore Girls, also won a featured role Tony in 1976. Hers was for her role in A Chorus Line, the long-running musical that was revived on Broadway just this year. Can you picture Emily Gilmore in a leotard? Weird thought! Sara Ramierez on Grey's Anatomy. She may not have a lot of chance to show it, so far, as Callie on Grey's Anatomy, but Sara Ramierez is a Tony-winning musical theatre actress. She won in the early 2000s for Spamalot, the Monty Python-inspired musical. Maybe Mexican-born Ramierez will follow in Mandy Patinkin's shoes and play a singing doc on her show. I kind of hope not though, there's enough music on that show as is. Warren Leight, executive producer of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I don't know what it is but Criminal Intent seems to be a stopping off point for successful theatre writers. Not only does Leight, whose Side Man won best play currently run CI, but Theresa Rebeck, who was short listed for a Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and Gina Gionfriddo, who's After Ashley earned some buzz last year, have also written for the show. It was directed in Massachusetts by CI star Kathryn Erbe's husband Terry Kinney. Kinney and Erbe both starred in Oz, which also starred Rita Moreno who is scheduled to guest on CI in 2007, and has a Tony of her own. See how that works out? There are plenty of Tony nominees on TV in various capacities. There's Kate Burton (Meredith's mom on Grey's Anatomy), Robert Sean Leonard (House's best buddy) Law & Order's S. Epatha Merkeson, and Without A Trace star Anthony LaPaglia to name a few. My personal favorite unexpected Tony nominee is Larry Bryggman who used to work for As The World Turns as John Dixon. He's got like three nominations. So keep an eye out when you're watching soaps, people; you never know if the next successful stage actor is right there in front of you on tv.