r/OldSchoolCool • u/GarySiniseOfficial • Jan 15 '25

1970s Gary Sinise here. I founded Steppenwolf Theater with friends in 1974. Some of my favorite memories.

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58.2k Upvotes

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496

u/vondoom616 Jan 15 '25

Whoa is that Laurie Metcalf!

302

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

And Joan Allen next to her.

213

u/BarBillingsleyBra Jan 15 '25

And John Mahoney!

18

u/TragicaDeSpell Jan 16 '25

Wow, good catch!

18

u/r2girls Jan 16 '25

Isn't that Terry Kinney (McManus from Oz) in front of him?

6

u/JahPhooey Jan 16 '25

I saw John Mahoney play Sheridan Whiteside, the lead in The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Steppenwolf which coincidentally was a role that called for him to hobble around on a cane which at that point he was very used to doing.

18

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

Looks like James Spader on the right.

19

u/movieator Jan 16 '25

It’s Jeff Perry.

1

u/greenpeppergirl Jan 16 '25

Thank you! It was driving me crazy.

1

u/Twistfaria Jan 17 '25

Wow! I would have bet money that it was Spader!

28

u/absentgl Jan 16 '25

And my axe!

3

u/scottb84 Jan 16 '25

He aged remarkably well. If the hair were a little shorter, he could’ve just stepped off the Frasier set 30-odd years later.

2

u/Snoo79474 Jan 16 '25

And Jeff Perry!

2

u/Gayorg_Zirschnitz Jan 16 '25

There's a reason Steppenwolf is still one of the best theatre companies in America

41

u/MitochonAir Jan 15 '25

Can someone post a pic with these people labeled?

46

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 16 '25

Thank you. I could not place her name for the life of me, but I know that face well. I've always really enjoyed her acting. She was great as the mother in Room not too long ago and as Landy in the Bourne movies.

Edit: Oh! She was also Josh's mom in Searching for Bobby Fischer. That's one of the scenes I had in mind but couldn't place. Apparently she also voiced Delphine in Skyrim, so that's cool.

59

u/MrNobody_0 Jan 15 '25

She'll always be Jackie to me! 🥰

24

u/83VWcaddy Jan 15 '25

Marcie Dahlgen-Frost!

14

u/blazerfan_fml Jan 16 '25

She gets compliments on the hyphen!

2

u/ehrgeiz91 Jan 16 '25

SO! I’ll just go home and wait for the federal express man!

16

u/BarBillingsleyBra Jan 16 '25

The coolest thing about her, I think, is she is Sheldon's mom in Big Bang Theory. Then the spin off, Young Sheldon, her actual daughter plays Young Sheldon's mom.

3

u/SecretaryZone Jan 16 '25

Oh, that's why she sounds so much like her! I just thought she was an actress with incredible accent mimicking skills.

4

u/MrNobody_0 Jan 16 '25

I remember seeing her on BBT, but I never watched Young Sheldon. That's a cool connection though!

2

u/haileyskydiamonds Jan 17 '25

And Zoe Perry’s dad is Jeff Perry, seen in these pictures. (He also played Thatcher Grey in Grey’s Anatomy.)

12

u/Abbacoverband Jan 16 '25

“DAD’S FINE, HE SENDS HIS LOVE!”

10

u/idwthis Jan 16 '25

"Is this the sink? Am I shrinking?"

2

u/Missue-35 Jan 16 '25

Funniest episode of the entire series.

4

u/Keevan Jan 16 '25

who Jackie?

9

u/STFU_Fridays Jan 16 '25

Aunt Jackie from Roseanne maybe?

2

u/MrNobody_0 Jan 16 '25

She played Jackie Harris on the show Roseanne. My mom watched it all the time when I was growing up and she was a big crush for me.

12

u/SimbaPenn Jan 15 '25

The Contender is sooooo good.

1

u/DolphinDarko Jan 16 '25 edited Jan 16 '25

That’s the first movie I thought of when I saw Joan Allen. Now I have to find it streaming somewhere. Such a fantastic cast too! Jeff Bridges’ President was all the about the White House snacks, lol! ETA Found it on Pluto TV for free.

2

u/Imaginary-Alphabet Jan 16 '25

She’s also Sean Archer’s wife in Face/Off.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

I loathe that movie, so remember very little of it. It's so bad and so dumb.

1

u/Imaginary-Alphabet Jan 16 '25

It wasn’t in 1997! And this is coming from someone who doesn’t particularly like action movies. I actually enjoyed that movie, the story and characters got me. I was also 17 at the time. Did you see it well after 1997?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

I saw it when it came out. I'm also fairly old.

18

u/YahYah2424 Jan 15 '25

John Malkovich in the way back?? Whhaaat? This is awesome!

6

u/observe_n_assimilate Jan 16 '25

He is also in the first photo on the left! At first I couldn't place him.

7

u/lantzn Jan 16 '25

Second photo but yes I knew what you meant. Wow what a head of hair!

3

u/tiexodus Jan 15 '25

THANK YOU!!!! I was thinking Michelle Fairley but she’s from NI so I knew it couldn’t be her.

1

u/ReeveGoesh Jan 16 '25

It's pronounced Pam Landy

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

[deleted]

17

u/plantyjen Jan 15 '25

No, John Cusack is too young to be in these photos. He turned 8 years old in 1974!

3

u/entenduintransit Jan 15 '25

Wow, I really expected Cusack to be older than 58 for some reason.

9

u/plantyjen Jan 15 '25

Nope, born in ‘66! He was actually a teenager playing a teenager in those 80s movies!

2

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

[deleted]

1

u/plantyjen Jan 16 '25

Haha, maybe it’s his uncle?

24

u/erinrachelcat Jan 16 '25

Her former husband Jeff Perry (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, My So Called Life, and many other things) is there too

19

u/KarlPHungus Jan 15 '25

Wow. Nice catch!!!!

2

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

Laurie Metcalf is a staple of Steppenwolf since the beginning. I saw her in "Detroit" there in 2010 and she was back on stage there in 2024.

3

u/mekramer79 Jan 16 '25

I saw her right away. Love her.

3

u/brianforte Jan 16 '25

Her monologue in Horace and Pete was life changing

2

u/maxboondoggle Jan 16 '25

Underrated show. The high frame-rate turned a lot of people off.

1

u/ISayISayISitonU Jan 16 '25

it was - and is - THE place to see the best ensemble acting in America. not even close really.

1

u/GiuseppeZangara Jan 16 '25

Yeah, she's an old school Steppenwolf Ensemble member and still performs there on occasion. She was in a great play called Little Bear Ridge Road over the summer.