FIGHTING ON
STEVEN Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan is widely considered to be one of the greatest war films of all time.
The director’s tale of a military operation to rescue a soldier after his three brothers are killed in World War Two is now a quarter of a century old.
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But what happened to the cast of the gritty epic, which was released in the US on July 24, 1998?
Tom Sizemore died earlier this year after a life spattered with scandal, two of the stars married supermodels, Giovanni Ribisi was caught up in Scientology, Dennis Farina died from a stroke and even Tom Hanks endured private turmoil.
Ed Burns - Private Reiben
Supermodel Christy Turlington fell for the American actor just a couple of years after Saving Private Ryan came out.
They have been married for two decades, having got hitched in 2003, and earlier this year Christy described her husband as “the best partner in raising our kids".
Ed, 55, and Christy, 54, have a daughter Grace, 19, and son Finn, 16
His most recent work, was directing, writing and starring in a comedy drama titled Bridge and Tunnel.
Remarkably, Ed's brother Brian Burns also went on to marry Christy’s sister Kelly.
Tom Sizemore - Sgt 1st Class Mike Horvath
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Troubled Hollywood star Tom Sizemore died from a stroke earlier this year - having battled addictions for much of his life.
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Sizemore, aged 61 when he suffered the fatal brain aneurysm in March, was a Golden Globe nominated actor who’d appeared in Natural Born Killers, Pearl Harbour and Black Hawk Down.
But he started taking drugs aged 15 and was arrested for possession of illegal substances as late as 2019.
Sizemore’s treatment of women was even more shocking. He was convicted of harassing and attacking ex-partner Heidi Fleiss in 2003 and assaulting another girlfriend in 2017.
An 11-year-old actress accused him of touching her inappropriately in 2003 and he claimed in his memoirs that he had an affair with Elizabeth Hurley while she was still seeing Hugh Grant.
Giovanni Ribisi - medic Irwin Wade
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The twice-divorced American actor was married to top British model Agyness Deyn and Halloween actress Mariah O'Brien.
He also dated American singer Cat Power for five years, before becoming the father of twins Enzo and Maude with partner Emily Ward, an interior designer, in December 2018.
Giovanni is probably best known for playing Phoebe Buffay's half-brother Frank in Friends.
He grew up as a Scientologist as his parents were dedicated members of the church and in 2017 Giovanni said the cult was “something that works for me, and I think it's that simple".
But his daughter Lucia, from his marriage to Mariah, said: “He's questioned it.”
Tom Hanks - Captain John H Miller
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There are few actors as beloved in the movie business as two-time Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks.
The 67-year-old American’s hits include Sleepless in Seattle, Big, Forrest Gump and Philadelphia.
He has been married to actress Rita Wilson for 35 years after divorcing first wife Samantha in 1987 and has four children.
But Tom has faced turmoil in 2015 when his wife Rita was treated for breast cancer and son Chet, 32, went into rehab for drug addiction.
At the time Tom said: “As a parent, you love your kids unconditionally.”
Dennis Farina - Officer Walter Anderson
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The Law and Order actor died from a blood clot ten years ago after secretly suffering from lung cancer.
Hollywood legend Dennis, who was 69 when he passed away in 2013, had starred in Get Shorty, Snatch and Midnight Run.
Dennis was a police detective in Chicago before becoming an actor in 1981.
He was arrested in 2008 at Los Angeles International Airport after he was found carrying a loaded gun in his carry-on luggage.
Dennis left behind three children and partner Marianne Cahill, who he’d been with for 35 years.
Barry Pepper - sniper Daniel Jackson
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The Canadian actor starred in three different war films - Saving Private Ryan, Flags of Our Fathers and We Were Soldiers.
When he was a child his family built a 50ft boat in their back garden and sailed the South Pacific for five years.
Then in 1987 the Johnny Depp TV series 21 Jump Street came to Vancouver and Barry thought he might “do extra work.”
Barry, who is married to Cindy and has a 23-year-old daughter, most recently appeared in a 2021 Netflix movie titled Awake and a film titled Trigger Point.
Vin Diesel - Private Adrian Caparzo
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The A-lister was an unknown actor when he appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.
But two years later Vin, 56, real name Mark Sinclair, was the lead star in the sci-fi hit Pitch Black and is now one of Hollywood’s highest paid stars.
This year he’s in the blockbusters Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and Fast X.
Off screen he dated Fast & Furious co-star Michelle Rodriguez around 2002 and since 2007 he’s been with Mexican model Paloma Jimenez.
They have three children, Hania, 13, Vincent, 12, Pauline, eight.
Adam Goldberg - Stanley "Fish" Mellish
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The comic actor is a regular on The Equalizer TV series starring Queen Latifah and will soon be in the Russell Crowe horror movie The Georgetown Project.
Adam is also another Friends alumni, having played Chandler's eccentric room mate for three episodes.
He’s been married to illustrator/designer Roxanne Daner since 2014 and they live in Los Angeles with their children, eight year-old Bud and Sonny, four.
Tragically, in 2013 their first child was stillborn.
Adam, 52, said: “It was horrifying, and it was also my worst fear.”
Goldberg has also released four albums as The Goldberg Sisters and regularly posts photographs on his Instagram page.
Matt Damon - James Francis Ryan
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Matt was already an Oscar-winning screenwriter before he played Private Ryan, who had to be saved in Spielberg’s World War II epic.
In 1997 he starred in Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with close pal Ben Affleck.
Since then he’s starred in the Bourne spy movies, the Ocean XI series and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.
But recently he told his wife Luciana, 46, that he was going take some time off from acting.
Matt said: “I promised that I wasn’t going to work and we were going to have some dedicated home time.”
That plan, though, was scuppered when British director Christopher Nolan cast him in his historical drama Oppenheimer, which was a role he couldn’t turn down.
Matt married Luciana in 2005, adopted his wife’s daughter and they have three more daughters together.
Jeremy Davies - interpreter Timothy Upham
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The American actor matched Brit legend Christian Bale for commitment to authenticity when he lost 33 lbs in weight while making the movie Rescue Dawn.
Jeremy, 53, who was lauded for his performance in Saving Private Ryan, shrunk down to 100lbs to play a prisoner of war in the 2007 film.
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The actor is rarely out of work.
He won an Emmy for the crime drama Justified, starred in JJ Abrams’ Lost, appeared alongside Nicole Kidman in Dogville and recently played a brutal parent in the Ethan Hawke horror The Black Phone.