Gary Sinise revealed his son Mac lost his ability to move before dying of cancer at age 33 in 2024.
“Mac tried 25 different drugs over a period of four and a half years,” the “Forrest Gump” star, 71, said in an interview with People published Wednesday.
“I never lost hope that we were going to reach the happy medium,” Sinise added.
Sinise — who quit acting in 2020, two years after Mac was diagnosed with chordoma, a rare bone tumor that forms in the spine or base of the skull — compared her late son to the soldier hero of the Oscar-winning 2019 film “1917.”
Mac, his father said, was “running across the battlefield, (with) bombs knocking you down, and you’re still getting back up.”
The “13 Reasons Why” alum added that the family “didn’t get the miracle we were all praying for, but there were other miracles, like how Mac lived his life.”
Sinise’s daughter, Ella, told the outlet that Mac’s “body was just destroyed” at the end of his battle with cancer.
“But Mac, when sick, was still a beautiful person,” Ella said. “He didn’t let that stop him.”
Mac, according to Ella, went to church, learned to play the harmonica and watched Cubs games with his mother, Moira, when he was sick.
Sinise’s other daughter, Sophie, said the family “surrounded him when he took his last breath.”
“As difficult as it was, we got a glimpse of eternal life,” Sophie told the outlet. “And the gifts continue to unfold. You feel his presence everywhere.”
While Mac was sick, Sinise also took care of his wife Moira, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent eight chemotherapy sessions and 35 radiotherapy sessions before being declared cancer-free by 2024.
However, Moira also battled lumbar degenerative disc disease and had to undergo two hip replacements and a spinal operation, which left her permanently disabled and unable to drive.
“She relies on me a lot because she’s physically disabled, and that frustrates her,” Sinise told People. “But she is my best friend and my emotional backbone.”
Moira compared Sinise caring for his sick son and wife at the same time to “the circus man juggling plates”.
“All I wanted to do was hold him,” she added, “and I couldn’t.”
But Sinise stands by his decision to make his family his “priority” in his career.
“One of the blessings is that I made it in Hollywood and could afford to be there for my family 24/7,” he shared.
The father of three also said Mac inspired the family in the way they have lived life since his passing.
“He wouldn’t want us to be curled up in a ball in a corner,” Sinise added. “He didn’t want us to fall apart. He wanted us to be strong and continue living.”
Sinise has more about his son’s tragic death in his upcoming memoir, “Graceful Warrior: The True Story of a Son, a Father and a Family Who Carried Through It,” which will be released later this month.
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