Actor Gary Sinise, who may be best known for his role as Lt Dan in the film “Forrest Gump,” hasn’t been acting in awhile. If you wonder why, the answer lies in his family and the medical issues they have faced in the past few years.
In 2018, two of Gary’s family members were diagnosed with cancer. First, his wife Moria was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Then, his son McCanna, who liked to be called Mac, was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer called Chordoma.
While Moria beat her fight against cancer, Mac did not.
Gary didn’t share a lot of about Mac’s fight against cancer until after the battle was over. In February 2024, Gary posted a picture of his son on Instagram as well as a link to a tribute he wrote on the Gary Sinise Foundation website.
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In the tribute, Gary explained that Mac worked with him at the Foundation and enjoyed his work there, but eventually he had to step away from the Foundation to focus on his battle with cancer.
Gary also explained that Mac was a musician. He was a drummer, and he graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music.
Gary shared that Mac’s cancer battle and the multiple surgeries he had to try to fight it “paralyzed him from the chest down, but he still had limited use of his right arm, and fingers on his left hand.” Mac was no longer able to play the drums, but he ended up being able to continue focusing on his music.
With the help of a friend from college named Oliver Schnee, Mac was able to finish writing a song he called “Arctic Circles,” and in July 2023, the song was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles.
You can watch a video of the recording session below.
Mac didn’t stop with just this one song either. He ended up learning to play the harmonica and recorded another song called “Shenandoah”
It didn’t stop there. He ended up recording an entire album called “Resurrection & Revival.”
Then Gary shared the sad news about his son’s death. He wrote, “The week the album went to press, Mac lost his battle with cancer. He died on January 5, 2024 at 3:25pm, and was laid to rest on January 23rd.”
Gary wrote, “Our family’s cancer fight lasted for 5 ½ years, and it became more and more challenging as time went on. While our hearts ache at missing him, we are comforted in knowing that Mac is no longer struggling, and inspired and moved by how he managed it. He fought an uphill battle against a cancer that has no cure, but he never quit trying. Mac loved movies, and we always told him he reminded us of the soldier at the end of the extraordinary film 1917, running through the battlefield, bombs going off all around him, knocking him down one after the other, yet he keeps getting back up, refusing to quit and keeps running forward.”
He added, “I am so blessed, fortunate, and proud to be his dad.”
