Gary Sinise: Fine character actor is 70 years old

Anyone who went to the cinema in the 1990s and 2000s or turned on the television could hardly avoid Gary Sinise. The mime, which comes from a film family, could be seen in numerous popular productions. But his best -known role will be that of all times that of the so moody as well as straight line Lt. Dan remain in the cult classic “Forrest Gump”, for which Sinise received his only Oscar nomination.

In Robert Zemeckis’ (72) breathtaking sprint through the US history of the second half of the 20th century, Sinise embodied the fan favorite and scene thief from a military family. Ancestors from Lt. Then the United States had died in every previous war, but when a certain Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks, 68) saves him in Vietnam, he reacts anything but pleased in view of the loss of his legs.

An essential part of the action of “Forrest Gump” as a result of how the naive main character according to Lt. Dans also saves his soul. Film history for eternity. The famous supporting actor Gary Sinise played at least at eye level with Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks.

At the time of his great Hollywood breakthrough, Sinise, born in 1955, was around 40 years old. Plenty of late for a great acting career in the dream factory. Nevertheless, Sinise was omnipresent in the 1990s.

At the same time as his huge success in “Forrest Gump” he shone as the main character Stu Redman in the acclaimed Stephen-King series adaptation “The Stand-The Last Battle”. This was followed by appearances as an opponent of Mel Gibson (69) in “Bounty” and Nicolas Cage (61) in “Play on time”.

With his “Forrest Gump” colleague Tom Hanks, he was also in front of the camera in “Apollo 13” and “The Green Mile”. In the 2000s it became quieter about Gary Sinise. He was particularly visible on TV, played in an incredible 197 episodes of the often generic crime series “CSI: New York” Detective Mac Taylor.

Sinise comes from a film family. His father was cutter and specialized in horror films. “I remember how I went to the cut room as a child and my father worked. I remember how I watched this Slasher film of my father when I was five years old, all this blood, the chainsaws and the shouting” ,.

Later he founded and headed a theater group in Chicago, which initially helped other members such as John Malkovich (71), Laurie Metcalf (69) or Joan Allen (68) to breakthrough in Hollywood before his time should start.

In Germany, Sinise’s commitment to veterans is probably completely unknown. He, who played a veneered Vietnam war returnee in “Forrest Gump”, collects money for the treatment of former soldiers and their relatives with his foundation, Gary Sinise Foundation, with the Lt. named after his “Forrest Gump” role. Dan Band already performed on the entire globe on hundreds of US military bases and has already received numerous awards and orders from the US military and the United States government.

Sinise is also an avowed Republican and, as such, is an exception in liberal Hollywood. In 2004 he even founded a kind of self-help group for conservatives in the US dream factory, the Friends of ABE, which understands himself as a retreat and meeting point for like-minded people.

Sinise recently withdrew from acting because he fought against cancer in his family. His son McCanna Sinise died in 2024 at the age of only 33 from a rare form of spine cancer. His long -time wife Moira Harris (70) fell ill in 2018 in breast cancer.