Gary Sinise reveal

Gary Sinise is opening up about what precipitated his departure from Hollywood.

The 69-year-old Academy Award nominee revealed on during an appearance on Fox News Digital that he left California and moved to Tennessee after both his wife and son were diagnosed with cancer in short succession.

Sinise shared that he and his family left their home in Los Angeles and moved to the Southeast back in 2021, though he hadn't taken a major acting job in the two years prior.

'We were in the cancer fight during that time,' Sinise said via video chat, adding that he stopped acting so that he wouldn't have to be away from his family for lengthy periods of time while his wife and son were seriously ill.

'My wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer. My son was diagnosed with this very rare cancer,' The Forrest Gump actor — who also shares two daughters with his wife — explained, adding that the diagnoses came 'within two months of each other.

To make matters worse, Sinise's father had had a stroke around that time, which left his mother require extra care.

'I kind of had my hands full,' he said. 

Sinise previously told Fox in 2022 that he had moved to Tennessee because of its lack of an income tax and the ability to keep his Lt. Dan Band — named after his character in Forrest Gump — together around the music capital of Nashville.

The film and television star's wife, Moria Harris Sinise, eventually went into to remission, but his son McCanna 'Mac' Sinise had an 'especially difficult' illness due to the rare spinal cancer chordoma, which he was diagnosed with in 2018.

In February, Sinise announced on his foundation's website that his son had died at just 33.

'Our son was fighting this cancer with no cure,' he continued as he got visibly emotional, describing the ordeal of finding medicines and healthcare providers that could help Mac as a 'full-time job.'

'Plus, he became more and more disabled by the cancer as time went on. … He needed more and more care,' Sinise explained.

Despite his sorrow at losing his son, he noted that Mac was 'happy at the end of his life.'

At the time of his death, Sinise revealed that Mac underwent surgery in September 2018 to remove a tumor on his spine, followed by a second surgery in February 2019 to combat an infection. 

The family got bad news in May of that year when a follow-up scan revealed that Mac's tumor had returned, and the cancer had spread. 

Despite his worsening condition and difficult treatments, Sinise wrote that his son continued to come into the foundation's office regularly, and after he was unable to he continued to work behind the scenes.

The actor revealed that Mac's final project for the foundation was a podcast interview with father and son. 

But he also had a passion project that his father helped him complete in his final days. 

Although Mac, who had studied at the University of Southern California's Thorton School of Music, could no longer play an instrument due to his ailment, he was still able to write a final composition.

His father contracted members of his Lt. Dan Band to fill out the arrangement, and the two collaborated on recording sessions.

Mac even made it onto the recording, as he had picked up the harmonica beforehand in order to leave a final personal touch.

The sessions ended up running so smoothly that Mac and his musicians were able to record additional pieces, which became the posthumous album Resurrection & Revival.

'I will say this about Mac and the album that he made last year … he had achieved something that he set out to do, which was to record all this music in May and make a full album of it,' Sinise told Fox New Digital. 'That gave me a lot of joy … just watching him kind of enjoy those moments.'

The album was released earlier this year, and on November 10, Resurrection & Revival: Part II was released.

The sequel LP was made from newly discovered compositions of Mac's that were subsequently recorded with the same arranger.

'This has been a real labor of very deep love. Because a lot of this music, I was not even aware that he had it until I discovered it on … his files,' Sinise said. 'I just started listening to this stuff that he'd written for the movie, and I was very, very moved by it.'

Resurrection & Revival: Part II is now on sale.