My Son's Beautiful Legacy

THE ACTOR LEFT HOLLYWOOD AFTER HIS SON MAC WAS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER. A YEAR AFTER MAC’S DEATH, SINISE 1S HOLDING TIGHT TO FAMILY—AND CELEBRATING HIS SON’S LIFE—IN HIS NEW TENNESSEE HOME

- By EILEEN FINAN

Gary Sinise is standing in a bright green grove outside his rural Nashville-area home, grinning as he talks about the starring role that’s become his favorite: “Papa” to his five grandchildren, ages 1½ to 8. “It’s just the most wonderful thing,” the actor says. Earlier in the day, Sinise, 70, handled the school run, but it’s not uncommon to spot the Oscar-nominated actor hanging out with the grandkids at Chuck E. Cheese or the local Sky Zone trampoline park. “He spoils them rotten,” says Sinise’s daughter Sophie, 36, of her and her sister Ella’s children, who always find two things at Papa’s house: ice cream (“They know they’ll get fed a lot of it when they come,” he admits) and hugs. “Being able to love on them and love on our daughters, that’s helped me a lot.”

That love kept him afloat after he walked away from his Hollywood career in 2019 to care for his son Mac when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. In the year since losing Mac at the age of 33, the actor has found comfort in his close-knit family and his Tennessee home, and new purpose in keeping Mac’s memory alive. “Mac left us things that are beautiful,” says Sinise. “I want people to know who he was.”

A Dream Fulfilled "As his body grew weaker, his faith grew stronger," Sinise's daughter Sophie says of her brother Mac (in November 2023), a composer who spent his last months writing and recording music.

An actor in demand ever since he starred in Forrest Gump and