[Chronicle]

May 11, 2000
Vol. 19 No. 16

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    Sinise to visit as Kovler Fellow

    By Jennifer Leovy
    News Office

    Gary Sinise[], an Oscar- and Tony-nominated actor-director and co-founder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, will visit the University campus Thursday, May 18, as a Marjorie Kovler Visiting Fellow. Sinise will discuss his celebrated work in theater, television and film.

    Curt Columbus, Director of University Theater, will moderate a question-and-answer session that will follow a screening of the film Of Mice and Men, in which Sinise costars with John Malkovich. The film will be shown at 11 a.m. in Doc Film’s Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., and tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis that morning.

    Sinise currently is starring as McMurphy in the Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which runs through June 24. He has received two Tony Award nominations, for his performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath in 1990 and for his direction of Buried Child in 1996.

    For his performance as Lt. Daniel Taylor in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Sinise garnered an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. Among his other movie credits are Mission to Mars (2000), Reindeer Games (2000), Ransom (1996) and Apollo 13 (1995).

    The actor received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards and an Emmy nomination for this portrayal of the president in the HBO film Truman (1995). He also has directed television episodes of China Beach, thirtysomething and Crime Story.

    Sinise’s visit strengthens the emerging ties between University Theater and the Steppenwolf, which in the last three years have provided acting, directing and dramaturgy internships for Chicago’s undergraduates.

    The Marjorie Kovler Visiting Fellows program brings distinguished speakers from the arts, sciences and public affairs to the University, allowing students to interact with prominent individuals they would not ordinarily have the opportunity to meet.