Born in Blue Island, Ill., on March 17, 1955, Gary Sinise got hooked on acting as a high schooler in suburban Chicago. As a founding member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, he acted in and directed some of the stage's most challenging works, including Sam Shepard's "True West," which was later filmed for PBS.

One of Sinise's first feature films was Of Mice and Men (1992), costarring fellow Steppenwolf actor John Malkovich. But it was his role as Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump (1994) that thrust Sinise into the public eye and earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Notable appearances in Apollo 13 (1995) and Ransom (1996) soon followed.

Sinise won an Emmy in 1997 for portraying the title character in the made-for-cable film "George Wallace." In 2004, he prepared to conquer television drama in the role of Det. Mac Taylor on "C.S.I.: NY." ... - from Netflix