The intense, wiry, dark-haired Gary Sinise first made his mark in the burgeoning theater scene of his native Chicago. Just out of high school, he joined with Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry (and others) to band together and form the Steppenwolf Theater, which in 1974, was housed in a church basement in Highland Park. Serving as artistic director until 1987, Sinise honed his skills as both actor and director. Striking out for the West Coast, he landed in Southern California in the late 1970s but found few roles beyond extra work in disco scenes on the ABC daytime drama "General Hospital" and bit
