Gary Sinise Says He Stepped Away from Acting to Care for Wife and Son with Cancer: 'Had My Hands Full'

Mar. 15, 2025

Moira Sinise and Gary Sinise attend the ceremony honoring Sinise with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on April 17, 2017 in Hollywood, California.Photo:Michael Tullberg/Getty

Michael Tullberg/Getty

Gary Siniseis getting candid about stepping away from Hollywood.

TheForrest Gumpstar, 69, shared in an interview withFox Newsthat his decision to take a break from his career in 2019 came down to the fact that his family were “in the cancer fight during that time."

“Traveling away from the family wasn’t possible with what we were going through,” he told the outlet. “My wife [Moira Harris] had been diagnosed with breast cancer. My son was diagnosed with this very rare cancer you know, within two months of each other.”

Sinise previously revealed that his sonMcCanna Anthony “Mac” Sinisewas diagnosed in August, 2018 with a “very rare cancer” known as Chordoma, which forms in a person’s spine or at the base of their skull, perCleveland Clinic. That diagnosis came just months after Harris, 70, received a stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis.

Moira Sinise and Gary Sinise attend the ceremony honoring Sinise with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on April 17, 2017 in Hollywood, California.Michael Tullberg/Getty

“And the cancer fight for Mac was especially difficult because he was… fighting this cancer with no cure,” Sinise shared. “And trying to find drugs and doctors, and trying to find anybody who could do anything for him was like a full-time job.”

However, those weren’t the only things the actor had to deal with at the time, as he told Fox News that his dad had also “just had a stroke” and he had to “take care” of his mom, who was “alone” at the time. He recalled, “I kind of had my hands full.”

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He said his wife eventually went into remission and was cancer-free, however he noted that it was “difficult” to watch his son fight the cancer “until he finally just couldn’t fight it anymore.”

Sinise shared on theGary Sinise Foundation’s website that his sondied at the age of 33on Jan. 5, and was laid to rest on Jan. 23. Alongside a photo of his son on social media, he wrote, “we are heartbroken and have been managing as best we can.”

“As parents, it is so difficult losing a child,” he continued. “My heart goes out to all who have suffered a similar loss, and to anyone who has lost a loved one. We’ve all experienced it in some way.”

Sinise told Fox News that his son “was happy at the end of his life,” explaining Mac “had achieved something that he had set out to do, which was to record all this music and make a full album out of it.”

“And that gave me a lot of joy just watching him kind of enjoy those moments.”

source: people.com