Gary Sinise Played A Stephen King Hero In This Hit ’90s TV Miniseries

Gary Sinise might be best known today for his role as Lieutenant Dan in “Forrest Gump,” but two months before the film released, he starred in another huge project: The ABC mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Stand.” The show, made up of four hour-and-a-half long episodes, ranks high on the list of best Stephen King TV shows. “I play Stu Redman, the first central character you meet,” Sinise told Southern News. Stu is one of the first people in the book and show to realize they’re immune from the plague killing over 99% of humanity, and one of the few characters to make it all the way to the end in one piece. “As the story progresses, he goes through a kind of spiritual regeneration,” Sinise said. 

Although not every critic loved the miniseries, they sure did seem to love Sinise. Film critic David Bianculli predicted that the series would turn Sinise into a huge star, while King himself would later declare Sinise to be one of the best casting choices ever made in one of his works. “No one will be able to top Gary Sinise,” King wrote in a 2011 piece for Entertainment Weekly. “He was perfect. When he says, ‘You don’t know nothing,’ to the soldiers who are putting him under mandatory quarantine, you believe his contempt completely.”

“The Stand” also featured major stars like Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, and Ruby Dee. For Ringwald, the show was seen almost as a step down for her. She was returning to network TV after a successful movie run, whereas many TV stars of the time wanted to make the leap into film and never look back. “All this business of people saying, ‘I’m a film actor, not a television actor’ is ridiculous. You’re either an actor or you’re not,” she told the Associated Press. 

Sinise remarked to Southern News on the show’s big-name cast and its mainstream success, joking, “All of a sudden, I’m doing things that people will actually see.” Before “The Stand,” he’d worked largely in theater. He co-founded Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1974 and served as its artistic director throughout most of the ’80s. His most famous role before “The Stand” was as George Milton in the 1992 film adaptation “Of Mice and Men,” which he himself directed.

Although his “Forrest Gump” role was undeniably the main gig that made Sinise a household name, the mainstream success of “The Stand” certainly didn’t hurt. The show is still fondly remembered by King’s fans. CBS attempted their own TV adaptation of “The Stand” in 2020, complete with a new ending written by King himself – but for most fans, the 1994 adaptation still reigns supreme.