Gary Sinise Gets Emotional in First Interview Since Son Mac's Death

Gary Sinise is sharing his memories of his late son two months after McCanna "Mac" Sinise died at the age of 33 following a five-year cancer battle. The Forrest Gump actor spoke with Entertainment Tonight after Mac's passing in January, getting emotional as he recalled his son's "pure heart" and indomitable spirit.

"He was a pure soul. He had a pure heart. He was a gentle, loving, kind, funny, talented guy," Gary told the outlet. "He loved his family. He loved his sisters. They were so close. He loved his mom. She was constantly with him throughout this cancer fight."

Mac was first diagnosed with Chordoma in 2018 after the pain in his tailbone intensified. While Mac and his family had long assumed the pain in his tailbone stemmed from a bike incident years prior, when the "pain got too much" for him to bear, a spinal surgeon who took his case discovered "a massive tumor on his sacrum."

"People can go for years just thinking they have a bruise there or something... then all of a sudden you discover you had a massive tumor growing there for years," Gary said of his son's cancer diagnosis. "This is the kind of slow-growing tumor that it could've been there since birth. We don't know."

Mac underwent surgery in September 2018 to remove the tumor, but the cancer returned in May 2019. Things began to get "a little trickier" for Mac as side effects from chemo, radiation and medication began to take hold, and the CSI: NY actor revealed he had to take a step back from his career to care for his son. Mac would undergo a number of other spinal surgeries in the years following his diagnosis, and despite becoming "more and more seriously ill," he remained determined to fight.

"It was not going to get better. There's no cure," Gary said. "We tried 25 different drugs. These are just drugs that are used on other cancers and the doctors kept trying and they said, 'As long as you want to keep trying, Mac, we'll keep trying. We'll come up with something.' Mac said, 'I want to keep trying.' He was an incredible fighter."

Eventually, Mac became paralyzed from the chest down, which Gary said was a "blessing" in some ways, as his son could no longer feel the intense pain he had been feeling before his paralysis. "It's just the nature of this awful cancer. He was fighting and I wasn't going to stop fighting for him," the star continued. "I never wanted to think that we were going to lose the battle even though you know that you're fighting uphill all the way. ...That's what I want people to know about... Mac never gave up. He kept fighting."

In the last days of his life, Mac's final work, an album titled Resurrection & Revival, went to press, and Gary said he was "at peace" and "smiling." The grieving father noted of his son, "He inspired me, and if telling his story can inspire others to just persevere through their own challenges and never quit, never give up, never give up living, then that's a good thing. That's a reason to share it. ... I'm proud. I'm proud to be his dad."