Greetings,
A few months ago, on Memorial Day to be exact, I did a list of my favorite Gary Sinise movies. I was happy to honor my favorite actor this way, but I thought I should do more. While I did mention some things about him other than his film life in that post, I wanted to really expand on his entire life and why it is that I, and so many others, really love and admire him. So let's begin at the beginning.
Gary Sinise was born on March 17, 1955, which means that, at present time, he is 57 years old. I know, I know. He looks way younger than that, but that's because being awesome is a fountain of youth. I think. Anyway, he was born in a place called Blue Island, Illinois, a place about which I've never heard, but I think it's around the Chicago area. Even though I've known this for quite awhile, I still find it hard to believe that he is from this part of the country. Mostly because, for some reason, I always feel like I hear the hint of a Southern accent went he speaks. Maybe it goes back to the movie The Stand where I first saw him, and his character was from East Texas. I know this because that one guy kept calling him "East Texas". But who knows? Moving on.
Gary got into acting early in life, and, at the very young age of 19, he and two friends founded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. This place has spawned some amazing actors, like Joan Allen, John Malkovich, Kathryn Erbe, William Peterson, just to name a few. So I suppose the best advice that one can give a young actor is to go to this place and do something, because their chances of having a very successful career will probably go up dramatically. Obviously, the place is still there to this day, and not only did Gary act there, it is also where he first tried his hand at directing. He even won a Joseph Jefferson Award for it at one point. Yeah, I don't even know what that is, but I'm going to say it is important and prestigious. Because I can.
Once we hit the 80's, Gary stepped away from the theater, just a smidge, to do some movies. Granted, they were TV movies of which I have never heard, but Wikipedia says that they exist, so I'll agree. Now he didn't do that many, but it still counts. And I guess this prepared him for what would happen in the 90's and beyond.
It was in 1992 that we got our first feature film with Gary Sinise, an adaptation of Of Mice and Men, which also starred Steppenwolf alum, John Malkovich. Not only did Gary star in this, but he also directed, and he did both wonderfully. Now this was not exactly a blockbuster film, making barely over five million bucks, but everyone who has seen it seems to look favorably on it. I know I certainly do.
After a few more appearances in feature films, ironically, it was another TV movie that initially introduced him to a large audience. In May of 1994, ABC began to run a miniseries called The Stand, based on Stephen King's masterpiece novel. I remember it being considered a major television event, and it was a huge ensemble piece with a phenomenal cast. A lot of people made a huge deal about this being something of a comeback for Rob Lowe, but it was Gary, I think, who made the biggest impact. Maybe it was because he had this huge part in it, yet not a lot people knew who he was. My response, not unlike a lot of others I'm sure, was, "I love this guy. Who the heck is he?" But alas, not two months later, he was unleashed on the world on the big screen in his biggest and most famous role ever.
The summer of 1994 brought a little movie called Forrest Gump. Oh, sure, everyone made a big deal about Tom Hanks, giving him every award you could think of and having everyone just go nuts over his character. As if anyone couldn't like someone like Forrest Gump. It's practically against the law to not do so. But you try to play a guy who is pretty much a total jerk for the majority of the film, and still have everyone love you? Now that is a gift, and it is exactly what Gary Sinise did. Now, nearly twenty years later, he is still Lt. Dan Taylor. And he has embraced it heartily, which is more than I can say for other celebrities who cannot accomplish this due to their overwhelming arrogance. But, no, Gary loves the Lt. Dan thing, so much that he even named his band after him. We'll talk more about that later.
Now what came with the whole Forrest Gump thing was a lot of movie roles. It's like Hollywood said, "Hey, look what we found!" Of course, all those subsequent roles proved that his part in The Stand was a bit of a false start. In that, he played someone who was a good guy, one of the heroes, a full-on super-nice dude. Yeah, that didn't stick too well. I mean, he did, on occasion play nice guys, but he really developed a knack for playing people who were, at their best, always in a bad mood, and, at their worst, just good old, plain psychopaths. From Ransom to Snake Eyes to Reindeer Games (Ho, ho, ho, indeed!), Gary certainly has a talent for playing bad guys. But it's okay, we still love him. How is that possible? Well, it is obviously because what a great man he is in the real life. This brings us to something for which he has become known, maybe even more than his acting.
In 2004, something very interesting happened. The world of reality and not reality seemed to intersect in the life of Gary Sinise. Number one, he began to portray his second most famous role, that of Detective Mac Taylor on CSI: NY, and Mac Taylor is a very good cop. This means that Gary was playing the hero again. But, not only was he playing a hero on this show, we all began to see what a hero he was in real life.
You see, also that year, he started the Lt. Dan Band. In this case, I don't mind an actor doing the music thing, for a few reasons. First of all, it's Gary doing it, so that makes it all right. Second, I'm pretty sure he was a musician before he got super famous as an actor, though, I could be wrong, but let's just say I'm not. And lastly and most importantly, he has used this band to help out our troops to the extreme. I have seriously never in my lifetime seen a celebrity be so supportive of our men and women in uniform. After seeing everything that Gary has done, it has become even more clear to me that, when it comes to supporting the troops, talk is cheap, and I mostly mean this in the case of celebrities. I'm not saying they don't, but when about 90% of them say they do, especially those of a certain political party of which Gary is vocally not a member, it really always sounds very insincere to me. But enough about those people. Let me talk more about the man who deserves to be commended.
One of the most important things that Gary had done concerning the Iraq war was to co-found something called Operation Iraqi Children, which has over time expanded to helping children from many countries and for many reasons. But this organization initially began by sending school supplies to children in Iraq, and attempting to rebuild their dilapidated schools. He has been to Iraq. He has seen these grateful little children hugging our soldiers and trying to tell them "I love you" in English. He has given these men and women the opportunity to come back and tell these beautiful stories. It is an opportunity that the majority of the media has denied them. Look, no one is denying that there are major negatives to any war. It is a war, after all. But why must we deny the good we have done over there? We mustn't. Gary knows that and refuses to let it happen. Of course, all of this has led to something about which a humble man like Gary might not feel comfortable or of which he may not feel deserving. That is the fact that he has become a hero.
We all know that the people who have fought in this war and every war are the heroes of our country. But sometimes, when they come back, they are not treated as such. So they become the ones who are in need of a hero. Well, Gary Sinise has become that to them. All you have to do is look at him as he does this work or listen to him speak about it. You will not find an ounce of insincerity or him looking for praise for himself by doing any of this. No, he does all of this because it is what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to help these people who have risked their lives for us all, and Gary has used his fame and notoriety to bring attention to this. Now I can admit, he has been honored quite a bit for all the work he does, but that is clearly just icing on the cake. His true reward comes from seeing how the results of all that work have changed people's lives for the better.
It is obvious that Gary has been extremely blessed in his life. He has a beautiful wife to whom he has been married for over thirty years, he has three great kids, he's talented beyond reason and he has been honored numerous times. And what he has done with all these things is pay them forward so that others could be blessed as well. I have chosen Gary Sinise as my favorite actor because he is a great one, but all of these other things have factored in immensely. I admire him greatly and always will. I pray that God continues to bless him for all he has done, and I hope that, by some miracle, Gary will read this one day and know how appreciated he is. Or you know, that he'll read this and let me sing with the band some time. I'm just saying.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
