Tom Irwin and Gary Sinise

[Jack]

Last night, July 3rd, I was watching a program called "Signature" on the People
Station. It was an interview with Gary Sinise, about his career, where he started,
the path he took to get where he's at, you know, the usual stuff.

In 1974, he apparently dropped out of college (I didn't see the whole thing, so my
facts might not be exact) and started a theater group which performed at a church.
I can't remember what state, I do know it wasn't California or New York. Anyways,
there were some people in this group that went on to become famous.
John Malkovich for one, as well as Laurie Metcalf and Joan Allen. They showed
a B&W photo of the whole group standing in front of the church and lo and behold,
there was Tom Irwin. Gary never mentioned him by name, actually he didn't
mention most of the people, but he did talk about the guy that was standing
behind Tom, and they showed a closeup of that side of the photo. It was
ummistakably Tom Irwin. The name of the group was The Steppenwolf Theater
Group (or just Steppenwolf).

Has anybody else heard of this? Has Tom Irwin ever talked about his connection
to Gary Sinise or John Malkovich in any interviews? Just thought it was interesting.
Talk to yous later.

Jack

[Sascha]

I don't have much time right now, but here are two links about this topic:
http://users.nni.com/tomirwin/theater.htm (the best tom irwin website btw.)
http://www.steppenwolf.org


Sascha

[Guest]

I remember reading somewhere on the web that he was in that theater group...maybe on this site? Anyway, they didn't elaborate.
-Alee

[richard]

if you look at the ensemble section of the steppenwolf site (as mentioned by sab) then you will see a photo with Tom Irwin standing on the far left.