Gary Sinise has opened up on the tragic loss of his son, who died from a rare type of cancer last year aged just 33.
The Hollywood icon put his acting career on pause after wife Moira and son Mac were both diagnosed with cancer in the same year.
As per reports, Mac was told he had a rare form of bone cancer in 2019, just two months after his mother had been diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer. Moira managed to survive her battle and was later declared cancer-free, though Mac sadly lost his fight in January 2024.
In the wake of his son’s passing, Sinise said via a statement on the Gary Sinise Foundation website: “He died on January 5, 2024 at 3:25pm, and was laid to rest on January 23rd.
“Like any family experiencing such a loss, we are heartbroken and have been managing as best we can… I am so blessed, fortunate, and proud to be his dad.”
In a new interview with People Magazine, Sinise revealed his son had suffered from a type of bone cancer named chordoma. It’s so rare it’s said to only affect 300 people in the US each year.
“It looked like a monster grabbing my son’s spine,” Sinise said of Mac’s MRI scan.
Doctors removed the 33-year-old’s tumor, but he was tragically among the few chordoma patients whose cancer returns.
With his son hospitalized for six of the first eight months of 2020, Forrest Gump star Sinise made the call to step away from the spotlight and halt his career in order to try and help his son survive.
“That’s when I stopped acting,” Sinise told People. “I started putting everything I had into trying to find a miracle for Mac.”
He added: “I didn’t want Mac to be thinking of the next treatment or to worry. So I thought about cancer all the time. You’re trying to take the pain away. A few times I felt like I couldn’t do enough, or I didn’t know what to do. Then you say a little prayer, get back up and go back into the fight.”
As time passed, Mac’s condition deteriorated. “Hope keeps you in the fight,” Sinise said. “You could see tumors on his body. You knew the drugs weren’t working. But I wasn’t thinking we were going to lose him.”
Tragically, Mac lost his battle with cancer on Jan 5, 2024, surrounded by family.
“He kept wanting to stay,” Sinise said. “He didn’t want to go. But I know Mac was at peace at the end. He dealt with it with grace and courage.”
As for any eventual return to the acting space, Sinise is content to take his time and prioritize being there for his family.
He explained: “Something may come along and it’ll be right, but it’s harder to leave home now. I just want to be around family. Since losing Mac, I hold my daughters a lot tighter. You think about the things that are really important.”
