CHICAGO – Sheldon Patinkin, a crucial figure in the development of improvisational comedy in Chicago and a mentor to generations of American and Canadian comedians, as well as aspiring theatrical directors and other theater artists, died Sunday at the age of 79, his close friend Jane Nicholl Sahlins said Sunday.
Patinkin, born in Chicago in 1935, was the longtime chairman of the theater department at Columbia College Chicago and part of the first generation of Chicago improvisers. He was an original member of the Playwrights Theatre Club, the pivotal 1950s group that spawned both the Compass Players and The Second City.
He had a half-century association with Second City, where he remained an artistic consultant and beloved link to the theater’s origination. He also retained associations with many other Chicago theaters, including the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he was an important source of guidance in the early years and where he continued to direct and consult. In the 1970s, Patinkin was a writer-producer for the cult TV show “SCTV.”
In the last few years, he was an ensemble member at the Gift Theatre in Chicago.
“Sheldon taught us how to be an ensemble and how to take care of each other,” said Gift Theatre artistic director Michael Patrick Thornton, who said that he was struggling to go on with a show Sunday afternoon but was doing so because he knew that his mentor would have had it no other way.