5. Mandy Patinkin
Actor and singer Mandy Patinkin may be best remembered for his role as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, or possibly for playing Saul Berenson in Homeland, or possibly for his Yiddish language album Mamaloshen, depending on your viewing and listening habits. In his personal life, though, he also plays the role of cancer survivor. In 2004, at age 51, Patinkin was diagnosed with prostate cancer; he was roughly the same age that his father was when he died of pancreatic cancer.
Upon hearing his diagnosis, “I felt lightheaded and overwhelmed, and I was weeping on the phone,” Patinkin said in an interview with Coping With Cancer magazine. Patinkin had previously been treated for the degenerative eye disease keratoconus, for which he received two corneal transplants. Following a radical prostatectomy, Patinkin made a full recovery and, for a while, became a vegan.