Gary Sinise recently opened up to People magazine about his decision to leave Hollywood behind five years ago amid his son’s battle with a rare bone cancer. Sinise, well known for his Oscar-nominated role as Lieutenant Dan in “Forrest Gump” and for headlining all nine seasons of “CSI: NY,” hasn’t acted since a trio of 2020 releases: The films “Joe Bell” and “I Still Believe” and his supporting turn on Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” Season 4.
Sinise’s son, Mac, was diagnosed with chordoma in 2018. The rare form of bone cancer only affects 300 people in the U.S. each year. The actor said he “stopped acting” in 2020 and “started putting everything I had into trying to find a miracle for Mac.” Sinise lost Mac last year at 33 years old.
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“Something may come along and it’ll be right, but it’s harder to leave home now,” Sinise said when asked about a comeback to acting. “I just want to be around family. Since losing Mac, I hold my daughters a lot tighter. You think about the things that are really important.”
Sinise explained that he gave up acting to care for Mac and was his son’s “air traffic controller,” explaining: “I didn’t want Mac to be thinking of the next treatment or to worry. So I thought about cancer all the time. You’re trying to take the pain away. A few times I felt like I couldn’t do enough, or I didn’t know what to do. Then you say a little prayer, get back up and go back into the fight.”
The actor said his work with the Gary Sinise Foundation, which he started in 2011 in order to help veterans and first responders and their families, ended up being a guide for him to navigate his son’s cancer and death.
“I’ve wrapped my arms around lots of kids who have lost a mom or a dad,” Sinise said. “I’ve been around people that have persevered through difficult things. It’s given me strength. There’s no question God prepared me well for dealing with our loss.”
Since ending his acting career in 2020, Sinise has largely avoided the spotlight. One of his last public media appearances was in 2021 at the National Memorial Day Concert in Washington D.C. Outside of “Forrest Gump” and “CSI: NY,” his other well-known credits include “Apollo 13” and and “The Green Mile.”
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