The intense, wiry, dark-haired Gary Sinise first made his mark in the burgeoning theater scene of his native Chicago. Just out of high school, he joined with Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry (and others) to band together and form the Steppenwolf Theater, which in 1974, was housed in a church basement in Highland Park. Serving as artistic director until 1987, Sinise honed his skills as both actor and director. Striking out for the West Coast, he landed in Southern California in the late 1970s but found few roles beyond extra work in disco scenes on the ABC daytime drama "General Hospital" and bit roles in primetimes shows (like CBS' serial "Knots Landing").
Returning to Chicago and Steppenwolf, he earned widespread praise for his staging of Sam Shepard's drama of sibling rivalry "True West" in 1982. The production was brought to NYC's Off-Broadway with Sinise starring opposite John Malkovich, again to nearly universal acclaim. (The production was preserved on tape and later aired on PBS in 1984.) Sinise became a talent in demand in NYC's theatrical community and he alternated as director (John Guare's "Landscape of the Body" 1984, "Orphans" 1985) and actor ("Balm in Gilead" 1985, under Malkovich's direction). Inevitably the lure of Hollywood prevailed and Sinise once again opted to try his luck in L.A.
Unlike his first sojourn, this time Sinise found a newfound respect. He directed episodes of NBC's Chicago-set drama "Crime Story" in 1987 and ABC's relationship series "thirtysomething" in 1989. Sandwiched between was his motion picture directorial debut "Miles From Home" (1988), an earnest if ultimately off-putting drama of a family losing its farm in which Chicago actors like Kinney, Malkovich. Laurie Metcalf and Kevin Anderson were featured. Sinise returned to the stage as Tom Joad in a highly-praised adaptation of the John Steinbeck classic "The Grapes of Wrath". Originating at Steppenwolf, the production moved to Broadway where it won the Tony Award as Best Play (and Sinise scored a nomination as lead actor in a play) before heading to London and eventually PBS.
Sinise made his debut in front of the film cameras in a memorable turn as the emotionally fragile soldier in "A Midnight Clear" (1992), Keith Gordon's underappreciated adaptation of William Wharton's novel. Later that year, he returned to Steinbeck and served triple duty as producer, director and star of a remake of "Of Mice and Men" which Roger Ebert has termed "a quiet triumph". Playing George, the caretaker to Malkovich's slow-witted Lennie, Sinise had the more difficult role but managed to imbue the character with a simple grace and dignity. Behind the camera, he kept things equally uncomplicated, zeroing in on the human elements of the story and eliciting fine performances from his cast that included Ray Walston and Sherilyn Fenn.
If "Of Mice and Men" had been more successful at the box office, Sinise might have been content to remain behind the camera. Instead, he continued to act, proving a fine albeit surprising romantic lead (opposite Molly Ringwald) in the ABC miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand" (1994). Later that year, Sinise offered a riveting portrait of an embittered and acerbic paraplegic Vietnam veteran in "Forrest Gump", a part that brought him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. He followed up with another unlikely role, as Sharon Stone's father (seen in flashbacks) in the flawed "The Quick and the Dead" and was the grounded astronaut Ken Mattingly whose illness precluded a trip on the ill-fated "Apollo 13" (both 1995). Sinise rounded out the year with an Emmy-nominated turn as "Truman" (HBO), the first of two TV biopics that solidified his reputation as one of America's finest actors. The other was his Emmy-winning portrayal of "George Wallace" (TNT, 1997). In both cases, the actor not only physically captured the political giants but also managed to evince their inner lives, allowing audiences to empathize with each, despite some less than admirable qualities (Sinise would reprise the Wallace role for a cameo in HBO's acclaimed "Path to War" in 2002).
This chameleon-like ability has allowed the actor to be cast as everything from less than heroic types (as in "Ransom," 1996) to outright villains (as in "Reindeer Games," 2000) to more conventional leads ("Mission to Mars," 2000) to quirky supporting character bits (in the Shirley MacLaine-directed comedy "Bruno," 2000). Sinise abandoned star power in favor of more challenging projects in the early 2000s, but even in a string of lesser films the actor's performances remained involving. In 2003 he acted opposite heavyweights Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman and Ed Harris in the film adaptation of novelist Phillip Roth's "The Human Stain," in which he played recurring Roth character Nathan Zuckerman. In the meandering, Elmore Leonard-derived caper "The Big Bounce" (2004), Sinise took on another villainous role, a developer who wants to put up high-rise hotels and spoil the flavor of Hawaiian paradise. The actor then tabled big screen supporting turns in favor of moving to network television to star as Det. Mac Taylor in "CSI: New York" (CBS, 2004 - ), the third incarnation of the hit forensic-minded crime drama franchise. Meanwhile, he maintained a presence on the big screen with his supporting turn in the paranormal thriller "The Forgotten" (2004).
Despite his preference for film work, Sinise has never abandoned his stage roots. He earned a second Tony nomination for his direction of Sam Shepard's "Buried Child" in 1996 and undertook the daunting role of Stanley Kowalski in a 50th anniversary staging of "A Streetcar Named Desire" at Steppenwolf. He again returned to Chicago to star as the rebellious inmate Randle McMurphy in a 2001 revival of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." The actor also enjoyed a lucrative side career as a voiceover actor for television commericals and audio books.