Gary Sinise Movies
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. Throughout the next decade Sinise worked in a variety of films including The Big Bounce, The Human Stain, and The Forgotten. However he had is most visible role on the small screen when he was cast as the male lead in the third of the popular CSI series, CSI: NY. In 2006 he brought his theater trained voice to the animated Open Season.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
CSI: NY, the third incarnation of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise and the spin-off of CSI: Miami, is a crime drama about forensic investigators who use high-tech science to follow the evidence and solve crimes in The Big Apple.
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, (more)
CSI: NY, the third incarnation of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise and the spin-off of CSI: Miami, is a crime drama about forensic investigators who use high-tech science to follow the evidence and solve crimes in The Big Apple.
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, (more)
CSI: NY, the third incarnation of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise and the spin-off of CSI: Miami, is a crime drama about forensic investigators who use high-tech science to follow the evidence and solve crimes in The Big Apple.
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, (more)
- 2005
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Twelve men who belong to one of the world's most exclusive fraternities -- people who've walked on the surface of the moon -- are paid homage in this documentary. Using newsreel footage, rare NASA photographs, and digitally animated re-creations, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon examines the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972 which put astronauts on the moon. In addition to explaining the technological know-how necessary to take our fliers to the moon, the film shares the thoughts of astronauts about what they saw and experienced in space, taken from their speeches and writings and read by a cast of distinguished actors, including Paul Newman, Morgan Freeman, Scott Glenn, Bill Paxton, and many more. Narrated by Tom Hanks (who also co-produced), Magnificent Desolation was shot and originally exhibited using the IMAX high-definition film format. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2004
The third entry in executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer's "CSI" (Crime Scene Investigation) franchise, CSI: NY was introduced as "MIA/NYC," the May 17, 2004, episode of CSI: Miami. Making its formal weekly CBS debut on September 22 of that same year, the new series starred Gary Sinise as Mac Taylor, head of the New York City crime lab, whose job it was to use the skimpiest of forensic evidence to track down murderers. A Chicago native, Mac had gotten his police job as the result of his bravery under fire as a U.S. Marine; and like most of major CSI characters, he harbored quite a few personal demons, most of them stemming from the death of his wife in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Taylor's team of forensic specialists included Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes), an outspoken female cop who'd pulled herself up from a murky background (she'd been an orphan raised by strangers) and was the most caustic and outspoken of the CSIers; Don Flack (Eddie Cahill), Yonkers-born scion of a family of cops, who effectively bridged the gap between traditional and modern police methods and wasn't above bending the rules; Mac's protégé Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo), who grew up in Staten Island as part of a suspected (and constantly under-surveillance) crime family, but who'd decided to operate on the right side of the law -- albeit on his own terms; Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper), a Harlem native who'd graduated from college at 18 and became a licensed surgeon at 24, but who felt out of place in the rarefied world of commercial medicine and opted for police work instead; and flirtatious, streetwise forensic analyst Aidan Burn (Vanessa Ferlito). The theme music for CSI: NY was that old favorite by The Who, "Baba O'Reilly." The series was created by Anthony Zuiker, Ann Donahoue, and Carol Mendelsohn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, (more)
Introduced in May 2004 as an episode of CSI: Miami, the CBS "procedural" cop drama CSI: NY launches its first full season with 22 hour-long episodes. The opener, "Blink," finds NYC Crime Lab head Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and his team of brilliant, iconoclastic forensic specialists hunting for a serial killer using clues provided by the perp's only surviving victim -- who has lost virtually all powers of communication. Later investigations involve a hungry rat who has swallowed vital evidence, a skeleton found by a tourist which may or may not be a hoax planted to throw the police off the trail of a real crime, and a grisly robbery-murder in Brooklyn in which the victims were systematically shot and smothered to death. Also, a police terrorist-response drill compromises the CSI's efforts to rescue a kidnap victim; a police horse may have to be put to sleep to retrieve an important clue as to the murder of the horse's rider; Mac's protégé Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) gets a bit too up-close and personal while hunting down a gang of young punks who kill for sport rather than profit; the team tries to determine if a somnambulist committed murder while asleep; three murders occurring simultaneously in three different boroughs might be connected; and the CSIers are forced to turn a mirror on their "own" when the chief investigator in a police-corruption case is murdered before making his findings public. The season ends with the episode "What You See Is What You See," in which Mac must choose to save the life of a shooting victim or immediately chase after the shooter -- a decision that triggers tortuous memories of the death of Mac's own wife during the 9/11 terrorist attack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, (more)
On a baseball team not often cited for its great players, Ron Santo was a hero and a legend. As a third baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Santo played 14 seasons (1960 through 1974), made the All-Star team nine times, earned five Gold Gloves, and in 1965 became the team's youngest ever captain. While Santo was establishing himself as one of the Cub's greatest players, he was also hiding a secret -- in 1958, the same year Ron signed with the Cubs organization, he was diagnosed with diabetes, but refused to tell his fellow players or the team's physicians for fear of being bumped from the team. In 1971, as the Cubs celebrated Ron Santo Day at Wrigley Field, the baseball great finally went public with his condition, becoming a leading Midwest spokesman and fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In 1990, Santo renewed his association with the Chicago Cubs as a commentator for the team's home games on radio station WGN, and in 2003, he became one of only three Cubs players to have their number officially retired. This Old Cub is a documentary about Ron Santo's remarkable life and career, not only examining his years as a player and broadcaster, but his longtime struggle with the disease that has cost him a leg but has failed to break his spirit, and the crusade by fans and admirers to see Santo inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Noted Cubs enthusiasts Bill Murray, Dennis Franz, and Gary Sinese, and baseball legends Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Willie Mays, and Tommy Lasorda are interviewed onscreen; actor Joe Mantegna narrates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2003
This exhaustively researched cable-TV documentary traces the history of drug movies, from camp classics like Reefer Madness to more serious and sober examinations like Requiem for a Dream. Top-heavy with clips from such once-shocking groundbreakers as The Man With the Golden Arm, the "head" flicks of the 1960s and '70s (Easy Rider, the Cheech and Chong vehicles, et al.), the goofy dope-head comedies and the straightforward "wasted-teen" dramas of the '80s (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Drugstore Cowboy) and cautionary epics about the ruined lives of the rich and famous (The Doors) and international narcotics-financed corruption (Traffic), the film illustrates how the truth about the drug culture has been both accurately chronicled and pathetically misrepresented by Hollywood. Several actors, writers, and directors who have worked in films detailing drug use and abuse are interviewed. Assembled by Oscar-winning moviemaker Bruce Sinofsky, Hollywood High was originally telecast by the AMC cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2003
Successful LA attorney Terry McQuinn (Gary Sinise) returns to his Maine home town, intent upon settling the estate of his late, long-estranged father Mac (Michael Rhoades), then returning home as soon as possible. But once he has arrived, Terry finds that he is inexorably bound to his old house by vague and fragmentary memories of a horrendous tragedy in his childhood. Figuring into Terry's plight is Katherine Wentworth (Joely Richardson), a girl from his past who, unbeknownst to either one of them, is also a key player in that tragedy. The story then takes a number of surprising turns, especially with the arrival of a "dead" man who isn't, and a wintertime pilgrimage to a most unusual parking garage (where, incidentally, the viewer finally learns the significance of the film's title. Adapted by Don Snyder from his own novel, Fallen Angel was produced for the CBS "Hallmark Hall of Fame" TV series, and was originally telecast on November 23, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Award-winning actor Tony Shalhoub adds the "director" hyphenate to his calling card with this labor of love, starring his wife, Brooke Adams, and written by his sister-in-law, Lynne Adams. Made-Up lightly parodies the reality-TV "makeover" craze as it tells the tale of Elizabeth (Brooke Adams), a middle-aged divorcée who agrees to be made over by her daughter Sara (Eva Amurri), a process which will be documented for eternity by her aspiring-filmmaker sister, Kate (Lynne Adams). A former actress still smarting over her long-since faded stardom, Elizabeth is none too pleased at having her transformation videotaped, but she goes along with it, and soon finds that her "new you" is winning over the affections of a new beau, restaurateur Max (Shalhoub). But self-doubt continues to nag at Elizabeth, to the point where she almost undermines her own chances at romance. Lynne Adams based her screenplay on her own one-woman play; Gary Sinise makes an appearance as Elizabeth's ex-husband. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brooke Adams, Lynne Adams, (more)
A boy learns more than he expects when he tries to improve his golf game in this drama. Timmy Price (Mason Gamble) is a 12-year-old boy who has begun to display a precocious talent for golf. Hoping to hone his son's interest in the game, Timmy's father, Mr. Price (Dylan Baker), arranges for his son to have a summer job as a caddy at a nearby country club. Timmy gets a crash course in the nature of class when he becomes aware of the sharp divide between the wealthy people who patronize the club and the working-class men and women who are there to quietly fulfill their desires. Charlie Logan (Philip Baker Hall) is one of the leading members of the club who is very much impressed when he sees Timmy practicing, and suggests to Mr. Price that Timmy would do well to study with an accomplished player. Mr. Price arranges for Timmy to train with Foster Pearse (Gary Sinise), a local golfer who once displayed tremendous promise, but dropped out of the professional circuit after winning his first tournament. As Timmy gets to know Foster, he learns a lot about golf, but even more about life, and discovers there's a secret behind Foster's decision to leave to pro tour. A Gentleman's Game was the first directorial credit for producer J. Mills Goodloe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mason Gamble, Gary Sinise, (more)
Shirley MacLaine makes her feature directorial debut with this offbeat comedy. Bruno (Alex D. Linz) is an eight-year-old boy attending a Catholic school; he is bright, is a good student, and wants to become an etymologist. He also likes to wear dresses, which causes him plenty of problems -- bullies beat him up on a regular basis, and the school's Mother Superior (Kathy Bates) thinks that something must be wrong with him. Bruno's mother Angela (Stacey Halprin), who tips the scales at 450 pounds, has just lost her husband Dino (Gary Sinise) to trampy Donna Marie (Joey Lauren Adams). With her pal Dolores (Jennifer Tilly) giving Angela regular reports on Dino's activities, she's too occupied to worry much about her son. When Bruno is hurt one day while wearing a skirt, he's taken to the hospital; with Angela suffering from a heart attack and Dino refusing to look after him, it falls to his grandmother Helen (MacLaine) to take care of the boy. But Bruno has finally found a playmate at school who doesn't find him strange -- Shaniqua (Kaimi Davael), a young black girl who wants to be a cowgirl. While Bruno was Shirley MacLaine's first attempt at directing a fictional film, it was not her first experience behind the camera; she previously made the Oscar-nominated documentary The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex D. Linz, Shirley MacLaine, (more)
Director James D. Stern debuts with this darkly comedic, archly ironic look at America's obsession with guns. The film opens with Helen and Warren Harding (Joan Allen and Jeff Daniels) awaking one night to the sounds of their suburban trophy getting broken into. Warren grabs his trusty handgun and blows away the intruder, only to complain about the blood spots on his newly purchased bathrobe from Sundance. The unlucky guy turns out to be Warren's business partner, and it does not take long for him to wonder out loud if his wife and the dead man were having an affair. Meanwhile, Warren's lawyer Tim (Andre Braugher), whose civil-rights leading father was gunned down when he was a boy, receives a handsome gun from his film fanatic boyfriend Chris (David Schwimmer). Others involved include the young nymphet Annabel Lee (Anna Paquin) and her thuggishly violent brother Sidney (Giovanni Ribisi); Mr. Morgan (Gary Sinise), an eccentric and extremely paranoid Internet tycoon; and Tennel (Josh Brolin), a video store manager turned poet. All of these characters have their own personal axes to grind and all have easy access to guns. The result is as violent as it is senseless. All the Rage was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Allen, Andre Braugher, (more)
- 1999
This documentary takes the viewer inside NASA's space shuttle for a close-up look at the most advanced flying machine ever built. Actor Gary Sinise narrates the history of the space shuttle's development, emphasizing the innovative designs that made the flying machine what it is today. Training sessions for crew members are featured. Computer animations and photography provide a grand tour of the interior of the shuttle's floor plan, living arrangements, and engine compartments. Exciting film footage of blast-offs, re-entries, and missions are highlights of the film. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
- 1997
This biopic chronicles the colorful life of former three-time Alabama Governor George Wallace, an outspoken conservative whose views on segregation led to his being shot and permanently disabled, something that abruptly ended his attempt for the Presidency. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Angelina Jolie, (more)
- 1997
This hour-long documentary presents the playwright, actor, and director Sam Shepard giving viewers a glimpse of his inner self through the prism of a group of his plays presented off-Broadway in 1996 and 1997. Shepard, who won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for his play Buried Child, is also the writer behind Curse of the Starving Class, True West, and Fool for Love. Highlights include scenes excerpted from play performances, Shepard in his first television interview, and commentary by actors Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise, John Malkovich, and Ed Harris. Directed by Oren Jacoby. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Both Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Niles (David Hyde Pierce) are jockeying for membership in the ultra-exclusive Empire Club. When the brothers find out that the club has only one opening, both men try to wreck each other's chances when they find out there's only one opening. In addition to the expected sibling rivalry run amok, this episode contains two pointed references to the TV series Cheers, both of them major sources of embarrassment for the huffy Frasier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Originally aired as a television mini-series, this all-star filmization of Stephen King's gripping epic of good versus evil chronicles the episodic adventures of a disparate group of people who struggle to reestablish civilization after a man-made catastrophe wipes out most of the world's population. The world abruptly ends when a deadly virus accidentally escapes from a government sponsored biological warfare laboratory. Soon people are dropping like flies from the plague, but a few survive and find themselves strangely compelled to head into the West. Good-hearted people follow the voice of an ancient black woman and head for Boulder, Colorado. Bad people follow the enigmatic Walkin' Dude to Las Vegas. It is only a matter of time before the two sides are forced into a climactic battle over the final fate of humanity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, (more)
- 1990
Scotland Yard constable Susannah Foster (Rosalyn Lander) arrives in LA to help Hunter (Fred Dryer) and McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) in their investigation of a double murder. The victims were both prostitutes, and the murderer's MO matches that of a London-based serial killer who goes berserk to the tune of "Brahm's Lullaby." Can it be that a highborn British photographer is a modern-day Jack the Ripper? This episode affords the viewer the rare opportunity of hearing guest star Gary Sinise as he deploys a most convincing British accent! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
My Name Is Bill W reunited the stars of the highly acclaimed 1986 TV movie The Promise: James Garner and James Woods. This time Woods has the bigger role as the real-life Bill Wilson, who comes marching home from World War One with a "little" liquor problem. He drinks steadily throughout the Prohibition Era, but Wilson's habit doesn't catch up with him until he is ruined by the 1929 stock market crash. This disaster propels Wilson into flat-out alcoholism, costing him his family and his reputation. While drying out in detox, Wilson strikes up a friendship with Bob Smith (Garner), an alcoholic doctor. Through Smith's influence, Bill Wilson organizes a small band of chronic drinkers into what will eventually become Alcoholics Anonymous. The formation of AA consumes the emotional final third of My Name Is Bill W, which like its Garner/Woods predecessor The Promise was originally presented as a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Originally aired on American public television, True West is a filmed performance of the Steppenwolf Theater Company's production of Sam Shepard's sibling rivalry play. John Malkovich plays a drifter who comes back home to patch up differences--as well instigate new ones--with his brother, a Hollywood screenwriter played by Gary Sinise. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
The year was 1932, and when a group of disgruntled World War I veterans marched on Washington, D.C., to demand a "bonus" promised to them for their military service, few could have foreseen the turbulence that lay ahead. Determined to ensure that the military would make good in delivering the funds promised, the 45,000 war veterans set up camp and refused to budge. When two tense months had passed and Congress refused to immediately pay the bonus, general Douglas MacArthur and officers Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton Jr. led the U.S. Army in driving the veterans from Washington with tear gas, tanks, and saber-wielding cavalrymen before burning the protestors' camp to the ground. Though the bonus would be paid off four years later to the benefit of some four million veterans, the historical march on Washington, D.C., laid the groundwork that would eventually influence the WWII GI Bill, cement the rights of citizens to assemble, and petition the government, and serve as one of the first occurrences of large-scale integration in a time where racial relations were an extremely sensitive issue. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2009
- R
First-time feature filmmaker Jake Rademacher attempts to understand the experiences, motivations, and sacrifices made by his two brothers, both of whom enlisted to serve their country by fighting in Iraq, by joining them on the front lines and experiencing their hardships firsthand. Isaac and Joe Rademacher are soldiers. Their brother, Jake, is not. Now, in an effort to understand just why his brothers have chosen to serve their country in the way that they have, Jake travels behind the camouflage curtain on secret missions into sniper "hide sites" in the Sunni Triangle, dodges machine-gun fire in a tense stand-off with the Iraqi Army, and follows secret reconnaissance troops on the Syrian border. Through these experiences, Jake is offered the unique opportunity to explore the bonds between soldiers on the front lines, and the effects their absence has on the loved ones awaiting their return back home. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
