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Gary Sinise is an actor, musician and humanitarian. Beloved in the broader military community, his Gary Sinise Foundation serves America’s veterans, first responders, their families and those in need. Established in 2011, it raised $282 million in its first decade.
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As the bassist in the Lt. Dan Band, he has performed over 530 shows at hospitals, benefit concerts and military bases, at home and abroad. Sinise is also the author of the best-selling book Grateful American: A Journey From Self to Service. He recently became an AARP ambassador for veterans and military families.
Sinise, best known for his iconic role as Lt. Dan Taylor in the 1994 blockbuster film Forrest Gump, sat down to talk with Toby Harnden, editor in chief of AARP Veteran Report, for its inaugural newsletter. A British-born veteran of the Royal Navy, Toby is a naturalized American citizen who was a war reporter in Afghanistan and Iraq and is the author of three books about the military and terrorism.
TH: You come from a family of military service. What did you learn from your relatives?
GS: So much of what I'm doing now, regarding veterans, starts right there with my family members. My grandfather Daniel Sinise served in the U.S. Army in World War I and was an ambulance driver in France during the Battles of the Meuse-Argonne. He and my grandmother had three sons — two of them served in World War II, and my dad, Robert, the youngest, was in the Navy during the Korean War.
When I met my wife back in the ’70s, she introduced me to her two brothers — both were Vietnam combat veterans. Her twin sister served in the U.S. Army and married a Vietnam veteran who had been a combat medic. Their son also served in the Army, deploying twice to Afghanistan. Our Vietnam veterans came home to a nation that turned its back on them, and many of them went into the shadows. That prompted me to start supporting various Vietnam veteran groups in the Chicago area, beginning in the early ’80s. In the mid-’90s, I had the opportunity to audition for Forrest Gump and play Lt. Dan. I felt I was somehow well prepared to play that character.
TH: You channeled that connection and experience into your portrayal of Lt. Dan as somebody who faces great adversity but prevails.
GS: Yes, after losing his legs in combat, it’s a happy ending for Lt. Dan. Toward the end of the film, he’s standing up on new legs, he’s successful in business, he’s married, and he’s happy. He goes through all the natural things that somebody losing his legs in war goes through — anguish, anger, despair, questioning. We see him experience loneliness, isolation, alcohol abuse — things that can happen to so many of our warriors.I had the great honor of having my brother-in-law Jack, the combat medic in Vietnam, on the set of Forrest Gump. I brought him down when we were shooting the battle scenes. In Vietnam, he’d hung his dog tags on a string of rosary beads he’d made from string and rope. I wore those dog tags in the movie.
