‘Criminal Minds’ Alum Mandy Patinkin Delightfully Fails This ‘Batman’ Quiz

Mandy Patinkin doesn’t have to prove anything after over four decades in the business. Still, his and Kathryn Grody’s son Gideon continues to have fun testing his parents in the hilarious videos they have published in the past year. Gideon quizzed Patinkin and Grody about Batman in their latest video, asking them to name five actors who played the Caped Crusader. Hilariously, both of them failed. But when you’re Inigo Montoya, you’ve already passed every test.

At the start of the video, Patinkin was certain he had at least one — Adam Beach. Patinkin must have meant Adam West, not the actor who co-starred in Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale with him. Grody then brought up the “great actor who played Chaplin,” referring to Robert Downey Jr. This was wrong too, since Downey played Iron-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not the DC Comics hero.

Soon, Patinkin realized he definitely knew of another actor who played Batman. The trouble was he could not remember his name. The Criminal Minds actor searched his brain, but he could only refer to the person as “my favorite actor of my generation.” Grody threw out a couple of names, suggesting Clint Eastwood, Daniel Day-Lewis, Anthony Hopkins, and Kenneth Branagh. All those names were wrong.

Gideon then realized who his father meant. He threw out things the actor’s name rhymed with. Eventually, Grody figured out that Patinkin was searching for Christian Bale, who starred in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. “I love you, Christian Bale!” Patinkin yelled. “You were on the tip of my tongue every f–king minute! He is the greatest actor! God forgive me for not remembering your name! I remembered your soul.” Later, many Twitter users reminded Patinkin that Bale is considerably younger than himself. “It has been brought to my attention that Mr. Bale is not my age, but it helps me to think of us as the same age, ok?” Patinkin replied.

Grody, 74, and Patinkin, 68, started sharing videos of themselves at their Upstate New York home during the coronavirus pandemic last year. The videos have all been filmed by their son Gideon, 35. Although their son Isaac, who lives in Colorado, is missing, they told the New York Times they felt lucky to be together during the pandemic. “There’s no question,” Patinkin said in February. “Being with my family holed up for 11 months has been one of the true gifts of my life.”

The videos have been so popular that the couple has heard offers to star in a family sitcom or reality TV show. Gideon said they have no plans to do anything like that, adding that the videos will probably stop after the pandemic. “Once the world is vaccinated, and living life is back in vogue, I might have to teach them how to do selfie videos,” Gideon told the Times. “That should be something.” Patinkin might be too busy to keep making the videos, though, as he recently joined Paramount+’s The Good Fight.

Here are the actors who have played Batman on the big screen: Ben Affleck, Bale, West, Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton, and George Clooney. Robert Pattinson stars as Batman in the upcoming The Batman. Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery played the character in the 1940s serials. Will Arnett voiced Batman in The LEGO Batman Movie, and Kevin Conroy voiced Batman in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.