It’s been 30 years since movie audiences — and particularly military ones — met iconic disabled vet Lt. Dan, played by Gary Sinise in the Forrest Gump. The character, said Sinise recently, changed his life.
Decades later, when he visited deployed forces overseas, troops would often not even know his real name, so they would greet him warmly as “Lt. Dan.”
For Sinise personally, the role inspired a lifetime of activism and charity work for veterans. As the movie turned 30 this summer, Sinise said he was grateful for the roll that paved the way for him to serve America’s military servicemen and women and honor veterans.
An on-screen vet’s ‘positive ending’
At a recent showing of the film to commemorate its 30th Anniversary attended by Task & Purpose, Sinise said he knew the movie had a chance to be memorable, with a cast that included Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Robin Wright, Mykelti Williamson, and others. But never imagined that the movie might become an American classic, nor that Lt. Dan would become one of the most widely cherished depictions of a combat veteran.
“I knew it was a good script,” Sinise said at a recent screening of the film in Nashville, Tennessee. “We were working with a great director, Tom is great, we had a terrific cast, and we knew we were doing something fun and special. But it wasn’t until we actually saw the movie all put together, we actually knew how good it was.”
When Sinise initially accepted the role, he already had a deep appreciation for Vietnam vets. He had family members who served and saw their struggle returning home to a nation that had turned its back on them. And while Hollywood had depicted Vietnam-era vets in previous films like “Coming Home,” “Platoon,” “Apocalypse Now,” this film, with a veteran who’d lost his legs in battle, offered something different – a positive ending.
“It’s a story that hadn’t been told before,” Sinise said. “There was a slew of Vietnam movies and at the end of those films, you’re not sure the veteran’s going to be okay. But in “Forrest Gump,” he’s standing up again, he’s moving on, he’s successful at business, and we really hadn’t seen that. And of course, that’s the story we want for every person who gets injured or wounded in battle. We want them to come home and be okay.”
Filming the movie, though, was far from glamorous. The cast worked with Dale Dye, a former Marine-turned-Hollywood adviser famous for putting actors through military-like-training.
“I wanted to kill Dale,” Sinise said. “No, I thanked him at the end because it was good. He was tough, like a drill sergeant. We lived out in the woods with snakes and bugs and all of that. I mean, military folks do that all of the time, but actors don’t necessarily do that.”
Soon after the film’s release, Sinise saw how well the character resonated with actual vets.
“Weeks after the movie came out, the Disabled American Veterans invited me to their national convention and gave me an award for playing Lt. Dan,” Sinise said. “I’ll never forget walking out onto that stage with two-to-three thousand wounded veterans in that ballroom. It had a profound effect on me.”
A post-9/11 mission
After the attacks of September 11, Sinise decided that vets returning from the wars that followed would not face the same indifference and even hostility that Vietnam veterans had.
“I just didn’t want to see that happen to the men and women who were raising their hand and going to Afghanistan and Iraq after that terrible day.,” Sinise said. “So, I raised my hand and went out there to do what I could.”
He began visiting servicemen and women, then formed a band to entertain them at bases overseas and in military hospitals.
“At the time, I hadn’t done CSI: New York or any of that yet,” Sinise said. “I’d been in some movies but most of the time when I went overseas to visit the troops they didn’t know my real name. They just knew Lt. Dan. So, I started taking the band and we called it the Lt. Dan Band.”
In the more than two decades since, his band has played more than 570 shows all over the world. Their 571st performance came recently before a sold-out crowd at the Grand Ole Opry. The historic venue in Nashville — where Sinise’s foundation is now headquartered — celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Forrest Gump.” The show featured country music artists playing songs from the movie’s soundtrack including On the Road Again, Go Your Own Way, and Hound Dog. The show included clips from the film, and a video message from Tom Hanks.
“It’s thirty years of cinematic history and part of Americana, but we’re also celebrating more than twenty years of what Gary Sinise has done,” Hanks said. “It’s an awful lot of good for a lot of people who deserve a little bit of a shout-out from the likes of Gary Sinise, our Lt. Dan who seems to have been walking for the last 30 years on magic legs.”
Sinise’s band did several songs, then welcomed a surprise guest in the middle of Sweet Home Alabama — Mykelti Williamson, harmonica in hand, to finish the song. They capped the night with Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A.
Sinise Foundation
Fourteen years ago, Sinise created the Gary Sinise Foundation. Since then, the foundation has spent millions building homes for the wounded, donating to families of military members or first responder killed in the line of duty. Each Christmas, the Foundation brings hundreds of families of fallen troops to Disney World for a 5-day event known as the Snowball Express.
All supported, Sinise said, by thousands and thousands of Americans who donate through the foundation’s website.
The Lt. Dan Band also keeps touring with a recent shows at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, Fort Knox in Kentucky, and the Disabled American Veteran’s convention in early August.
At the convention, he played a song written by his son Mac, who passed away from cancer in January.
“We were able to share a beautiful song my son Mac wrote years ago,” Sinise wrote on X. “The response from DAV choked me up. Thank you to all for your kindness.”
Sinise recently launched a podcast to highlight stories of those the foundation has served. The idea came from Mac and while Sinise says his family is heartbroken and misses him terribly, his son left them some beautiful gifts. One, an album of music with profits going to the foundation, and the podcast.
“He started this podcast and we just revived and resurrected it and shot the first three episodes of the new version,” says Sinise. “We built a podcast studio called the Mac Sinise Memorial Studio in his honor to carry on his dream of telling the stories of the people we’re serving, and the people who helping serve them.”
And it all began, he said, with the role of a lifetime in playing Lt. Dan
“It’s a great thing to be able to take the success I’ve had and do something with it and give back,” he says. “I’m proud of it and we’re going to keep doing it.”
For more information visit www.garysinisefoundation.org