It’s been thirty years sinceForrest Gumpfirst graced the silver screen, and that time has givenGary Siniseperspective on his character, Lieutenant Dan Taylor. With humor and respect for the role, Sinise waxed poetic about his love for the character.
Forbescaught up with Sinise to discuss his work with The Gary Sinise Foundation, a charity organization — founded by Sinise in 2011 — that serves wounded veterans. While interviewing the actor, Forbes asked him about his role as Lt. Dan, a role which seemingly changed Sinise’s life in several ways.“Yes and well, it’s like, ‘Damn! I looked pretty good 30 years ago!’ I was buffed out as Lt. Dan there,”Sinise joked.“I must’ve been in the gym. Lt. Dan was a stud!”
Forrest Gump
Sinise also recalls aconversation with Tom Hanksin which the star praised him highly. Remembering the role was one of his first on-screen (Sinise was trained as a stage actor), he explained that the praise meant a lot to him:
“I remember [he] called me up after he had seen a bunch of dailies and saw some cut footage together of Lt. Dan and Forrest. He said something like, ‘Gosh, I just saw your stuff, and it’s like Clark Gable walked on the stage.’ He was really impressed. And that was only about my third or fourth film. I hadn’t done that many movies.”
Although Sinise comes from a military family,Sinise credits the role with leading him to a deeper understanding of veteran affairs. Noting that he plays every year with his band, the Lt. Dan Band, at the National Convention of Disabled American Veterans, Sinise mentions having great respect for wounded veterans. In fact, Sinise recalls the emotionally powerful first time he took the stage at the convention:
“The movie opened 30 years ago this summer in July and in August of 1994, I was invited to the National Convention of the Disabled American Veterans. They wanted to give me an award for playing Lt. Dan and I walked on stage and there were 2,000 wounded veterans out there, screaming and yelling like I’m Elvis or something. I looked out and saw these people in wheelchairs and everything and I just broke down. I got very emotional.”
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Lt. Dan is one of the most dynamic characters inForrest Gump.Introduced during Forrest’s tour in Vietnam, Lt. Dan expresses that every generation of men in his family has died in war. Dan himself fully expects to die in Vietnam, but when Forrest saves his life, he’s left with no legs and hardly any support back home.
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Forrest sticks by his side, however, and helps Dan find a reason to live, recapturing the joy of life. Dan’s struggle is a long, difficult story that showcases the realities of ableism and the lack of mental health support veterans receive when they return home. Throughout it all,it’s Forrest who treats Dan no differentlythan when he had legs, and Dan eventually learns to respect the man that he had once despised.
The role resonated with audiences, and as Sinise notes, it particularly resonated with disabled veterans, who saw themselves in Sinise’s performance. The character may be one of the most iconic in American cinematic history, and it’s almost impossible to picture someone else in the role.
