By Delayna Earley
The Island News
It has been 30 years since Gary Sinise traveled to Beaufort to play the role of a wounded Vietnam War veteran named Lt. Dan, a role that would ultimately influence the rest of his life.
At the time, Sinise was not a well-known actor, having only done a few movies and mostly theater work, and while he knew that the movie Forrest Gump had the potential to be great due to a fantastic cast, screen play and director, he had no idea just how much that role would change his life.
“Back in those days I was kind of anonymous, people didn’t really know what I was doing,” Sinise said. “So, Forrest Gump changed all that and being honored for that and other films that I’ve been in, that’s wonderful and it gave me the opportunity to come back and visit and say hello to everybody.”
He has been back to the Lowcountry since filming that movie in the early 1990s, but this time he was back in Beaufort to be honored with a Pat Conroy Lifetime Achievement Award at the Beaufort International Film Festival (BIFF).
Sinise received his award on Saturday, Feb. 24, at USCB’s Center for the Arts, and the award was presented to him by his longtime friend Jonathan Flora, who worked with Sinise years ago on a documentary about the Lt. Dan Band and Sinise in 2011 as he traveled to play for enlisted men and women at military bases around the world.
After receiving the award, Sinise sat down and discussed his career with Ron Tucker, President of the Beaufort Film Society and co-director of BIFF.
“Today, more than anything, we show appreciation for the movie [Forrest Gump] because it presented us with the Gary Sinise that is here today,” Tucker said. “Lt. Dan is there, but Gary Sinise is the one making all of this happen.”
Sinise agreed with Tucker and said that his role in the movie, while he did not fully realize it at the time, would ultimately change his life forever.
“I think playing the character would have a profound effect on what I would end up doing in terms of supporting our men and women and giving back to them,” said Sinise.
Point made, the night prior to receiving this life achievement award, Sinise and his band the Lt. Dan Band, named after his character in Forrest Gump, played a concert for roughly 7,000 civilians and enlisted men and women at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
Sinise said that he was coming to Beaufort for the film festival and thought to himself that he had never played at the air station, so why not bring his band along and put on a show.
While the makeup of the band has changed over the years, the purpose of the band has not.
“I just want them to have a good time. We play a lot of fun songs. It’s not like I was a frustrated musician who became an actor, I was an actor who played music on the side,” Sinise said about his band.
He continued by saying that he was the amateur in his band surrounded by professionals.
Sinise said that he is proud of the work that he and his co-stars did on the movie Forrest Gump, and movies like it become classics for a reason.
“I think the good thing is that the men and women serving our country know that I’m serious about supporting them.”
“Everybody has those movies that you see when you’re younger that are just always a part of your life. You see it and you reflect back to what you were doing when you saw it 20 or 30 years ago, or you hear a song, and it takes you back. I think a lot of people saw that movie when they were young and now, they’ve got their own kids and they’re showing the movie to their own kids and passing it on. That’s what makes a classic. Those classics get passed on because they are good, and they survive, and they live inside us and make us feel good when we see them. I think there are a lot of people that saw [Forest] Gump and they felt that way and they want their kids to feel that way. I’m glad it’s still out there, 30 year later,” Sinise said.
The 30th anniversary of the premiere of Forrest Gump is on July 6, 2024, and Sinise said he was happy that the film festival brought him back to Beaufort this year so that he could catch up with friends and spend some time here.
“Beaufort and Forrest Gump – they go together and both the movie and the town have a special place in my heart,” said Sinise.
Delayna Earley formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
