Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks' films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America.

Hanks made his breakthrough with leading roles in a series of comedy films which received positive media attention, such as ''Splash'' (1984), ''The Money Pit'' (1986), ''Big'' (1988) and ''A League of Their Own'' (1992). He won two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor for starring as a gay lawyer suffering from AIDS in ''Philadelphia'' (1993) and the title character in '' Forrest Gump'' (1994). Hanks collaborated with film director Steven Spielberg on five films: ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), ''Catch Me If You Can'' (2002), ''The Terminal'' (2004), '' Bridge of Spies'' (2015), and '' The Post'' (2017), as well as the HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers'' (2001), and '' The Pacific'' (2010) which launched him as a director, producer, and screenwriter.

Hanks' other films include the romantic comedies ''Sleepless in Seattle'' (1993) and ''You've Got Mail'' (1998); the dramas '' Apollo 13'' (1995), '' The Green Mile'' (1999), ''Cast Away'' (2000), ''Road to Perdition'' (2002), and ''Cloud Atlas'' (2012); and the biographical dramas '' Charlie Wilson's War'' (2007), '' Captain Phillips'' (2013), ''Saving Mr. Banks'' (2013), '' Sully'' (2016), ''A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood'' (2019), '' News of the World'' (2020), and ''Elvis'' (2022). Hanks has also appeared as the title character in the Robert Langdon film series, and voiced Sheriff Woody in the ''Toy Story'' film series (1995–present).

Hanks' accolades include two Academy Awards out of six nominations. Hanks has also won seven Primetime Emmy Awards for his work as a producer of various limited series and television movies, including ''From the Earth to the Moon'', ''Band of Brothers'', ''John Adams'', and ''The Pacific''. In 2013, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Nora Ephron's '' Lucky Guy''. He has received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002. He received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2004. In 2014, he received a Kennedy Center Honor, and in 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, as well as the French Legion of Honor. In 2020, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Early life and family

Hanks was born in Concord, California, on July 9, 1956, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn () and itinerant cook Amos "Bud"Stated on ''Inside the Actors Studio'', 1999 Hanks. His mother was from a Portuguese family; their surname was originally "Fraga". His father had English ancestry, and through his line, Hanks is a distant cousin of President Abraham Lincoln and children's host Fred Rogers, whom he played. His parents divorced in 1960. Their three oldest children, Sandra (later Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer), Larry (who became an entomology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim (who also became an actor and filmmaker), remained with their mother in Red Bluff, California. In his childhood, Hanks' family moved often; by the age of 10, he had lived in 10 different houses.

While Hanks' family religious history was Catholic and Mormon, one journalist characterized Hanks' teenage self as being a "Bible-toting evangelical" for several years. In school, he was unpopular with students and teachers alike, later telling ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, "I was a geek, a spaz. I was horribly, painfully, terribly shy. At the same time, I was the guy who'd yell out funny captions during filmstrips. But I didn't get into trouble. I was always a real good kid and pretty responsible." In 1965, his father married Frances Wong, a San Francisco native of Chinese descent. Frances had three children, two of whom lived with Hanks during his high school years. Hanks acted in school plays, including '' South Pacific'', while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California.

Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, and transferred to California State University, Sacramento after two years.
* ^a "Famous alumni*: Actor Tom Hanks... *Includes former students who attended—but didn't graduate from—the university"—¶ 67. During a 2001 interview with sportscaster Bob Costas, Hanks was asked whether he would rather have an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy. He replied he would rather win a Heisman by playing halfback for the California Golden Bears. He told '' New York'' magazine in 1986, "Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant. I spent a lot of time going to plays. I wouldn't take dates with me. I'd just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, and then get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Ibsen, and all that."

During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. At Dowling's suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival. His internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, and stage management, prompting Hanks to drop out of college. During the same time, Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'', one of the few times he played a villain. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named Hanks one of the "Top 10 College Dropouts."

Career

1980s: Early work

In 1979, Hanks moved to New York City, where he made his film debut in the low-budget slasher film ''He Knows You're Alone'' (1980) and landed a starring role in the television movie ''Mazes and Monsters''. Early that year, he was cast in the lead, Callimaco, in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolò Machiavelli's ''The Mandrake'', directed by Daniel Southern. The following year, Hanks landed one of the lead roles, that of character Kip Wilson, on the ABC television pilot of ''Bosom Buddies''. He and Peter Scolari played a pair of young advertising men forced to dress as women so they could live in an inexpensive all-female hotel. Hanks had previously partnered with Scolari on the 1970s game show ''Make Me Laugh''. After landing the role, Hanks moved to Los Angeles. ''Bosom Buddies'' ran for two seasons, and, although the ratings were never strong, television critics gave the program high marks. "The first day I saw him on the set," co-producer Ian Praiser told ''Rolling Stone'', "I thought, 'Too bad he won't be in television for long.' I knew he'd be a movie star in two years." However, although Praiser knew it, he was not able to convince Hanks. "The television show had come out of nowhere," Hanks' best friend Tom Lizzio told ''Rolling Stone''.

Hanks made a guest appearance on a 1982 episode of ''Happy Days'' ("A Case of Revenge," in which he played a disgruntled former classmate of Fonzie) where he met writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel who were also writing the film ''Splash'' (1984), a romantic comedy fantasy about a mermaid who falls in love with a human, to be directed by former ''Happy Days'' star Ron Howard. Ganz and Mandel suggested Howard consider Hanks for the film. At first, Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character's wisecracking brother, a role that eventually went to John Candy. Instead, Hanks landed the lead role in ''Splash'', which went on to become a surprise box office hit, grossing more than US$69 million. He also had a sizable hit with the sex comedy ''Bachelor Party'', also in 1984. In 1983–84, Hanks made three guest appearances on ''Family Ties'' as Elyse Keaton's alcoholic brother Ned Donnelly.

With ''Nothing in Common'' (1986)—a story of a young man alienated from his father (played by Jackie Gleason)— Hanks began to extend himself from comedic roles to dramatic roles. In an interview with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, Hanks commented on his experience: "It changed my desires about working in movies. Part of it was the nature of the material, what we were trying to say. But besides that, it focused on people's relationships. The story was about a guy and his father, unlike, say, ''The Money Pit'', where the story is really about a guy and his house." In 1987, he had signed an agreement with The Walt Disney Studios where he had starred to a talent pool in an acting/producing pact. After a few more flops and a moderate success with the comedy '' Dragnet'', Hanks' stature in the film industry rose.

The broad success of the fantasy comedy ''Big'' (1988) established Hanks as a major Hollywood talent, both as a box office draw and within the industry as an actor. For his performance in the film, Hanks earned his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. ''Big'' was followed later that year by ''Punchline'', in which he and Sally Field co-starred as struggling comedians.

Hanks then suffered a run of box-office underperformers: ''The 'Burbs'' (1989), '' Joe Versus the Volcano'' (1990), and ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'' (1990). In the last, he portrayed a greedy Wall Street figure who gets enmeshed in a hit-and-run accident. 1989's ''Turner & Hooch'' was Hanks' only financially successful film of the period.

1990s: Established star

Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball legend turned manager in ''A League of Their Own'' (1992). Hanks has said his acting in earlier roles was not great, but that he subsequently improved. In an interview with '' Vanity Fair'', Hanks noted his ''"modern era of moviemaking ... because enough self-discovery has gone on ... My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top"''. This "modern era" began in 1993 for Hanks, first with ''Sleepless in Seattle'' and then with ''Philadelphia''. The former was a blockbuster success about a widower who finds true love over the radio airwaves. Richard Schickel of ''TIME'' called his performance "charming," and most critics agreed that Hanks' portrayal ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.

In ''Philadelphia'', he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination. Hanks lost and thinned his hair in order to appear sickly for the role. In a review for ''People'', Leah Rozen stated, "Above all, credit for ''Philadelphia''s success belongs to Hanks, who makes sure that he plays a character, not a saint. He is flat-out terrific, giving a deeply felt, carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in ''Philadelphia''. During his acceptance speech, he revealed that his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and former classmate John Gilkerson, two people with whom he was close, were gay.

Hanks followed ''Philadelphia'' with the 1994 hit '' Forrest Gump'' which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. Hanks remarked: "When I read the script for ''Gump'', I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can go to and feel ... some hope for their lot and their position in life ... I got that from the movies a hundred million times when I was a kid. I still do." Hanks won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in ''Forrest Gump'', becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning consecutive Best Actor Oscars. (Spencer Tracy was the first, winning in 1937–38. Hanks and Tracy were the same age at the time they received their Academy Awards: 37 for the first and 38 for the second.)

Hanks' next role as astronaut and commander Jim Lovell in the 1995 film '' Apollo 13'' reunited him with Ron Howard. Critics generally applauded the film and the performances of the entire cast, which included actors Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned nine Academy Award nominations, winning two. Later that year, Hanks starred in Disney/Pixar's CGI-animated hit film ''Toy Story'', as the voice of Sheriff Woody.

Hanks made his directing debut with his 1996 film ''That Thing You Do!'' about a 1960s pop group, also playing the role of a music producer. Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman went on to create Playtone, a record and film production company named after the record company in the film.

Hanks then executive produced, co-wrote, and co-directed the HBO docudrama ''From the Earth to the Moon''. The 12-part series chronicled the space program from its inception, through the familiar flights of Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell, to the personal feelings surrounding the reality of moon landings. The Emmy Award-winning project was, at US$68 million, one of the most expensive ventures undertaken for television.

In 1998, Hanks' next project was no less expensive. For ''Saving Private Ryan'', he teamed up with Steven Spielberg to make a film about a search through war-torn France after D-Day to bring back a soldier. It earned the praise and respect of the film community, critics, and the general public. It was labeled one of the finest war films ever made and earned Spielberg his second Academy Award for direction, and Hanks another Best Actor nomination. Later that year, Hanks re-teamed with his ''Sleepless in Seattle'' co-star Meg Ryan for ''You've Got Mail'', a remake of 1940's ''The Shop Around the Corner''. In 1999, Hanks starred in an adaptation of the Stephen King novel '' The Green Mile''. He also returned as the voice of Woody in ''Toy Story 2'', the sequel to ''Toy Story''.

2000s

In 2000, Hanks starred in Robert Zemeckis's ''Cast Away'', for which he received a Golden Globe Award win for Best Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a marooned FedEx systems analyst. Famed critic Roger Ebert of ''The Chicago Sun-Times'' wrote of Hanks' performance "Hanks proves here again what an effective actor he is, never straining for an effect, always persuasive even in this unlikely situation, winning our sympathy with his eyes and his body language when there's no one else on the screen."

In 2001, Hanks helped direct and produce the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers''. He also appeared in the September 11 television special '' America: A Tribute to Heroes'' and the documentary ''Rescued From the Closet''. He then teamed up with '' American Beauty'' director Sam Mendes for the adaptation of Max Allan Collins's and Richard Piers Rayner's DC Comics graphic novel ''Road to Perdition'', in which he played an anti-hero role as a hitman on the run with his son. That same year, Hanks collaborated once again with director Spielberg, starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the hit biographical crime drama ''Catch Me If You Can'', based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. The same year, Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson produced the hit movie ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding''. In August 2007, he along with co-producers Rita Wilson and Gary Goetzman, and writer and star Nia Vardalos, initiated a legal action against the production company Gold Circle Films for their share of profits from the movie. At the age of 45, Hanks became the youngest-ever recipient of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award on June 12, 2002.

In 2004, he appeared in three films: The Coen brothers' '' The Ladykillers'', another Spielberg film, ''The Terminal'', and ''The Polar Express'', a family film from Zemeckis for which Hanks played multiple motion capture roles. In a ''USA Weekend'' interview, Hanks discussed how he chooses projects: "ince''A League of Their Own'', it can't be just another movie for me. It has to get me going somehow ... There has to be some all-encompassing desire or feeling about wanting to do that particular movie. I'd like to assume that I'm willing to go down any avenue in order to do it right". In August 2005, Hanks was voted in as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."Actor Hanks voted in by Academy"
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