Gary Sinise
Born: March 17, 1955
Birthplace: Blue Island, Illinois
Famous For...: Currently stars in CBS's CSI: New York as Detective Mac Taylor. He also plays bass in the Lt. Dan Band, named for his character in the popular film Forrest Gump.
Notable Achievements: Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Lieutenant Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump; won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries for his role in Truman; won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for the television film George Wallace.
Gary Sinise is an actor and director, currently
starring in CBS's CSI: New York
as Detective Mac
Taylor. He also plays bass in the Lt. Dan Ban,
named for the character he portrayed in the film Forrest Gump.
Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois, attended high school in Highland Park, Illinois, and continued
his education at Illinois State University. In 1974,
Sinise and two friends, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry, founded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he
developed his acting and directing skills and worked many of the company's
productions.
Throughout the years, he earned awards for his roles
as director and actor, starting in 1982 with Steppenwolf's production of True
West, for which he earned an Obie Award in 1983. Since then, Sinise
has appeared in many films, including Of Mice and Men (which he also
directed), Apollo
13, Reindeer
Games, Snake
Eyes, Ransom,
Mission
to Mars, The Stand, Impostor and The Green Mile.
In 2004, he joined the cast of CSI: New York, and also has been
credited as a producer and writer of some episodes. Sinise has showcased his
musical talents on the show, including an episode where he plays bass guitar in
a jazz club with musicians Kimo and Carol Williams and Danny Gottlieb, members
of the Lt. Dan Band, which Sinise and Kimo
Williams co-founded in 2003.
Apart from his television and movie work, Sinise narrated the Discovery Channel's miniseries When We Left Earth,
serves as the Executive
Producer—along with David Scantling—of the Iraq War documentary Brothers at War,
narrated a biography for Navy SEAL and Medal
of Honor recipient Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor, co-founded Operation Iraqi Children, and was
awarded the Presidential
Citizen Medal by George W. Bush for his
humanitarian contributions to Iraqi school children and his involvement in the USO. In 2009, Sinise co-narrated the National Memorial Day
Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C. with Joe Mantegna.
