- By Noor Nanji
- Cultural reporter
February 28, 2024, 09:06 GMT
Updated 1 hour ago
Image source: Getty Images
“Forrest Gump” star Gary Sinise has announced the death of his 33-year-old son Mac after battling “a very rare cancer.”
The US actor announced that his son died on January 5, more than five years after he was diagnosed.
In a statement posted on the Gary Sinise Foundation website, he said the family is “heartbroken” and will cope “as best we can.”
He added that he feels “blessed, lucky and proud” to be Mac's father.
Mac, whose full name was McCanna Anthony Sinise, was a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music and an “exceptional drummer,” his father said.
Sinise said he was diagnosed with chordoma in August 2018, just two months after his wife Moira was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.
Image source: Shutterstock
image description,
Mac was a talented drummer
His wife recovered and remained cancer-free after treatment. However, Mac's cancer spread and “became more and more disabling,” Sinise wrote.
“As a parent, it is so difficult to lose a child. “My condolences go out to everyone who has suffered a similar loss and to everyone who has lost a loved one,” he said.
“It’s heartbreaking and just damn hard. Our family’s battle with cancer lasted five and a half years and became increasingly difficult as time went on.”
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Gary Sinise starred alongside Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump
Sinise, who starred opposite Tom Hanks as Lieutenant Dan Taylor in the 1994 Oscar-winning film “Forrest Gump,” said the family's “heart aches” for missing Mac.
But he added that they took comfort in knowing he was no longer suffering and that they were “inspired and moved by how he made it through.”
“He fought a tough battle against a cancer that has no cure, but he never stopped trying.”
Sinese, 68, said that “one in a million” cancers originate in the spine and affect about 300 people in the United States each year.
He called his son “an incredible inspiration to those who knew and loved him,” adding, “He overcame his battle with grace, courage and love. Even after one setback after another, he never stopped living and learning, creating and giving, and loving.”