Gary Sinise is opening up about his decision to put acting on pause and leave Hollywood behind while his family faced a series of health issues, including cancer diagnoses in both his son and wife. “My wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer. My son was diagnosed with this very rare cancer … within two months of each other. My dad had just had a stroke, and my mom was alone, and I had to … take care of her. … I kind of had my hands full,” he told Fox News. Sinise’s son, McCanna “Mac” Sinise was diagnosed with chordoma in 2018. The rare form of cancer affects only about 300 Americans per year. Sinise took a break from acting in 2019 to focus on his family, then moved from LA in 2021 to be with family. “I had to stop. Traveling away from the family for long periods of time wasn’t possible with what we were going through,” he said.

“Our son was fighting this cancer with no cure. Trying to find drugs and doctors or anybody that could do anything for him was like a full-time job. Plus, he became more and more disabled by the cancer as time went on. … He needed more and more care,” Sinise recalled. Sinise’s wife’s cancer went into remission. His son, however, succumbed to his illness and passed away earlier this year at the age of 33. Sinise has now focused his efforts on promoting Mac’s album, “Resurrection and Revival: Part 2.” “I will say this about Mac and the album that he made last year … he had achieved something that he set out to do, which was to record all this music in May and make a full album of it … that gave me a lot of joy … just watching him kind of enjoy those moments,” Sinise said of his son’s final days. “This has been a real labor of very deep love. Because a lot of this music, I was not even aware that he had it until I discovered it on … his files.”

Apart from his musical talents, Mac worked as the assistant manager of education and outreach at the Gary Sinise Foundation. Known for his role as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, Sinise started the foundation in 2011 to assist veterans. In 2020, Mac was forced to step down from his role in the organization to focus on his health. The foundation has a page honoring him on its website. Sinise has focused on the joy his son experienced in his last days. “He had achieved something that he set out to do, which was to record all this music in May and make a full album of it. That gave me a lot of joy, just watching him kind of enjoy those moments.”