Gary Sinise Picture 1

Biography

A founding member of the Chicago's influential Steppenwolf Theatre Company (along with Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry) when he was barely 19, Gary Sinise made his professional acting debut at the age of 17 in a 1973 production of The Physicist. Sinise himself would sum up his career best by noting that the secret to a successful career is not to focus on taking off like a rocket, but to "always keep the engine running." With a prolific and well-defined career on each side of the camera in addition to his stage work, keeping the engine running is precisely what Sinise has done, and that engine has been well maintained.

Born in Blue Island, IL, and attending school in Highland Park, Sinise's attraction to the stage was supported early on through the encouragement of Barbara Patterson, his high school drama teacher. After a role in West Side Story, Sinise's love for the stage was set in stone, leading him to found the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he would meet his future wife, actress Moira Harris. Initially based in a church basement, the Steppenwolf quickly grew in stature and respectability, serving as the breeding ground for such talents as John Malkovich and Laurie Metcalf, and earning critical praise with productions like Sam Shepard's True West, which would eventually become the company's Broadway debut.

Sinise's film and television career began as a director on such television series' as Crime Story and thirtysomething, eventually leading to his feature directorial debut with the rural drama Miles From Home (starring fellow Steppenwolfers Metcalf and Malkovich) and his feature acting debut in the haunting war drama A Midnight Clear (1991). Sinise's love for the stage resurfaced with his ambitious 1992 remake of Of Mice and Men (in which he also starred, again with fellow Steppenwolf alum Malkovich, in the roles they had both portrayed on stage).

But it was his performance as the physically crippled and emotionally shattered Lt. Dan in Robert Zemeckis' blockbuster Forrest Gump (1994) that brought Sinise to light as an actor of considerable talent. His sensitive portrait of a once invincible soldier reduced to a pathetic self-pitying ghost of his own former glory was the perfect vessel for the actor's quiet intensity and florid emotional capabilities, and brought him the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That same year Sinise had a starring role in the long-anticipated television adaptation of Stephen King's apocalyptic thriller The Stand.

Sinise continued to display his dramatic abilities through the '90s, rejoining Gump co-star Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's Apollo 13 and starring as both Harry S. Truman and George Wallace in the biopics Truman (1995) (for which he won a Cable Ace Award and a Golden Globe) and George Wallace (1997) (for which he won an Emmy). With minor appearances in The Green Mile and Being John Malkovich (both 1999), Sinise brought in the year 2000 in a sci-fi mode, with Brian De Palma's existential thriller Mission to Mars and as a weapons engineer with questionable motives in Imposter

Filmography

Human Stain, The (2003) .... Nathan Zuckerman
Big Bounce, The (2003) .... Ray Ritchie
AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Tom Hanks (2002) (TV) .... Himself
Path to War (2002) (TV) (uncredited) .... George Wallace
Made-Up (2002) .... Duncan Tivey
Impostor (2002) .... Spence Olham
Gentleman's Game, A (2001) .... Foster Pearse
My VH1 Music Awards (2001) (TV) .... Presenter
Bruno (2000) .... Dino Battaglia
... aka Dress Code, The (2000) (USA)
Mission to Mars (2000) .... Jim McConnell
... aka M2M (2000) (USA: promotional abbreviation)
Reindeer Games (2000) .... Gabriel Mercer
... aka Deception (2000/II) (UK) (USA: working title)
Green Mile, The (1999) .... Burt Hammersmith
... aka Stephen King's The Green Mile (1999) (USA: complete title)
Miracle of the Green Mile, The (1999) (TV) .... Himself
All the Rage (1999) .... Morgan
... aka It's the Rage (2000) (USA: cable TV title)
Being John Malkovich (1999) (uncredited) (archive footage) .... Stage Role
That Championship Season (1999) (TV) .... Tom Daley
Snake Eyes (1998) .... Commander Kevin Dunne
Sam Shepard: Stalking Himself (1998) (TV) .... Himself
"Celebrity Profile" (1997) TV Series .... Himself
George Wallace (1997) (TV) .... George C. Wallace
Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13 (1996) (V) .... Himself
"West, The" (1996) (mini) TV Series (voice)
Ransom (1996) .... Detective Jimmy Shaker
Albino Alligator (1996) .... Milo
... aka Albino Alligator (1996) (France)
Chicago on Stage (1995) (TV) .... Himself
Truman (1995) (TV) .... Harry S. Truman
Apollo 13 (1995) .... Ken Mattingly
... aka Apollo 13: The IMAX Experience (2002) (USA: IMAX version)
Quick and the Dead, The (1995) .... Marshall
Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump (1994) (TV) .... Himself
Forrest Gump (1994) .... Lt. Dan Taylor
"Stand, The" (1994) (mini) TV Series .... Stu Redman
... aka "Stephen King's The Stand" (1994) (mini)
Jack the Bear (1993) .... Norman Strick
Witness, The (1992) (TV) .... Young Soldier
Of Mice and Men (1992) .... George Milton
Midnight Clear, A (1992) .... Vance 'Mother' Wilkins
Grapes of Wrath, The (1991) (TV) .... Tom Joad
Final Days, The (1989) (TV) .... Richard Ben-Veniste
My Name Is Bill W. (1989) (TV) .... Ebby, Bill's best friend
Family Secrets (1984) (TV) .... Motorcyclist
True West (1984) (TV) .... Austin