American actor and filmmaker Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born on July 9, 1956. He is regarded as an American cultural icon and is among the most recognizable and well-known performers in the world. He has been acknowledged for both his serious and comedic roles.
Thanks to his films’ nearly $4.9 billion in North American box office receipts and over $9.96 billion worldwide, Tom Hanks is the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America. Among the numerous honors he has received are the AFI Life Achievement Award (2002), Kennedy Center Honor (2014), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016), French Legion of Honor (2016), and Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award (2020).
Quick Facts
- Birth Name: Thomas Jeffrey Hanks.
- Birth Date: July 9, 1956
- Birth Place: California, United States
- Gender: Male
- Career: Actor, Producer
- Most Known For: Although he played in the sitcom Bosom Buddies on television, he gained far greater notoriety for his role in the Ron Howard blockbuster Splash. He went on to star in several more well-known and critically praised films, such as Cast Away, Big, and Forrest Gump.
Early Life
The traveling chef Amos “Bud” Hanks and hospital staff Janet Marylyn (née Frager) gave birth to Hanks on July 9, 1956, in Concord, California. 1961 saw the divorce of his parents. The youngest kid, Jim, stayed in Red Bluff, California, with his mother, while the three eldest, Sandra, Larry, and Tom, moved with their father. Hanks’ family relocated frequently when he was a youngster; by the time he was ten, he had lived in ten different homes.
Though Hanks’ family has a history of both Catholicism and Mormonism, one reporter referred to Hanks as a “Bible-toting evangelical” when he was still a teenager. Following a two-year theatrical education at Chabot College in Hayward, California, Hanks enrolled at California State University, Sacramento.
While studying theater, Hanks got to meet Vincent Dowling, the director of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Hanks started working as an intern at the festival at Dowling’s recommendation. After his internship turned into a three-year experience covering stage management, lighting, set design, and other aspects of theatrical production, Hanks dropped out of college.
Simultaneously, Hanks won the 1978 Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance as Proteus in Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona—one of his few evil parts. After a decade, Hanks was included in Time magazine’s list of “Top 10 College Dropouts.”
Early Career from 1980-1986
After his third season with the Great Lakes festival, Hanks moved to New York City in 1980, leaving behind his undergraduate education. Following many audition rounds, he was chosen for a small part in the 1980 horror film He Knows You’re Alone. He was selected to feature in the comedy Bosom Buddies as one of two advertising executives who have to dress in drag in order to rent an apartment in an all-female building after being seen by an ABC talent scout the same year.
Hanks received considerable reputation from the show, despite its cancellation after two seasons, and went on to make guest appearances on other popular comedies, such as Taxi (1978–83), Happy Days (1974–84), The Love Boat (1977–87), and Family Ties (1982–89).
Hanks was rediscovered in 1982 by Happy Days co-star and current director Ron Howard, who had Hanks read for a supporting role in a film. John Candy ultimately won the supporting part, and Hanks went on to play the lead in Howard’s Splash (1984), playing a guy who falls in love with Daryl Hannah’s portrayal of a mermaid. With the unexpected success of the film, Hanks’s face became instantly recognizable.
Thereafter came other highly regarded films, such as Volunteers (1985), Bachelor Party (1984), Dragnet (1987), The Man With One Red Shoe (1985), and The Money Pit (1986). Though Hanks suffered some criticism, he remained mostly unscathed as reviewers consistently praised his performance as the best part of the movie.
‘Dragnet,’ ‘Big,’ and ‘Punchline’
He inked an acting/producing deal with The Walt Disney Studios in 1987, showcasing his skills to a talent pool. Hanks’s status in the movie business increased following a couple more bombs and a little amount of success with the comedy Dragnet.
Hanks had to wait a long time before receiving a breakthrough role in Penny Marshall’s 1988 picture Big, when he portrayed a 13-year-old kid whose body was transposed into that of a 35-year-old man over night. He received positive feedback from critics and fans for his performance, which led to a nomination for his first Academy Award—best actor. Hanks proved he could be both a brilliant performer and a big office magnet with Big.
Later that year, just after Big, Punchline, in which he and Sally Field costarred as struggling comics, was released. The ‘Burbs (1989), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) were among the commercially disastrous movies Hanks starred in after that. He portrayed a Wall Street magnate driven by avarice in the last one, which included him in a hit-and-run. The only successful film Hanks had at the time was Turner & Hooch (1989).
‘A League of Their Own,’ ‘Philadelphia,’ and ‘Forrest Gump’
Following a memorable performance as the manager of an all-female baseball team in A League of Their Own (1992), Hanks scored two huge hits in 1993: Philadelphia, in which Denzel Washington costarred, and Sleepless in Seattle, a romantic comedy helmed by Nora Ephron that reunited him with Joe Versus the Volcano costar Meg Ryan. In the subsequent film, Hanks portrayed an AIDS-stricken lawyer who gets fired from his wealthy company, giving a courageous performance that earned him the Academy Award for best actor.
In 1994, he released Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis’ epic account of an unlikely hero’s journey through American history, to coincide with that incredible year. After becoming a great blockbuster at the box office, the film won Oscars for best picture and director. Regarding Hanks, he became the first person to win a lead actor Oscar in fifty years when he took home his second straight win.
‘Apollo 13,’ ‘Toy Story,’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’
Hanks was the lead in another well-known 1995 film, Apollo 13, which was based on the spacecraft’s botched 1970 lunar landing mission and directed by Howard. The film was released in IMAX format in 2002. Similar to Forrest Gump, the film made over $500 million at the box office. In the first major Disney/Pixar film, Toy Story, which debuted in 1995, he starred as Sheriff Woody.
Hanks’ debut script and directorial endeavor, That Thing You Do!, was somewhat successful the next year. He continued his career as an actor, writer, director, and producer behind the camera for several episodes of the Emmy-winning HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
In 1998, he appeared in another groundbreaking film, Steven Spielberg’s brutally realistic World War II epic Saving Private Ryan. Only Spielberg took home the Oscar for best picture, despite being the clear favorite and receiving nods for both the actor and director categories. In the same year, Hanks worked with Ryan and Ephron once more on the well-liked romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail.
‘Cast Away’ and Da Vinci’s Trilogy
Hanks had a significant physical transformation to portray a person who gets lost on a desert island in Zemeckis’s much awaited Cast Away (2000), which also starred Helen Hunt. Hanks’ performance won him a ton of praise, and it sent the film to the top of the holiday box office. In addition, he was duly nominated for a second Oscar in the best actor category.
After racking up a remarkable run of box office blockbusters, Hanks became the youngest actor to ever earn the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. His affable good looks and down-to-earth personality drew parallels to the likes of Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, and Henry Fonda.
In 2002, Hanks produced the unexpected hit of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, starring actress Nia Vardalos. The Polar Express, Spielberg’s comedy-drama The Terminal, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s reimagining of the beloved 1955 comedy The Ladykillers marked his reappearance to the big screen in 2004. The A-list actor continued to produce, contributing to the Imax space documentaries Magnificent Desolation (2005) and Evan Almighty (2007).
Hanks’ next major motion picture role came in the much awaited The Da Vinci Code (2006), which featured Audrey Tatou and was based on the best-selling novel by Dan Brown. The film grossed over 750 million dollars worldwide.
Angels & Demons, the 2009 follow-up to Da Vinci, featured Hanks. He went on to give voice work for the critically acclaimed TV miniseries The Pacific (2010) and Toy Story 3 (2010) before going on to appear in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) and Cloud Atlas (2012).
‘Saving Mr. Banks,’ ‘The Post,’ ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ and Recent Movies
After a distinguished cinematic career, Hanks made his Broadway debut with the Lucky Guy production in 2013. Despite his strong performance, Tracy Letts of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? beat him out for the Tony Award nomination for best performance by a major actor.
Hanks played Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks (2013), a film that chronicles how the studio chief convinced P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to authorize the Mary Poppins movie. Hanks had the lead role in the seafaring suspense film Captain Phillips as well.
Hanks and Meryl Streep appeared in Spielberg’s 2017 film The Post, which is centered on the drama surrounding the Washington Post’s publication of the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. Reviewers praised the veteran actor for his performance once again, and he was nominated for another Golden Globe.
In January 2018, it was announced that Hanks would play Mister Rogers in the upcoming biopic, which will eventually be titled A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. The idea originated from a 1998 Esquire article by Tom Junod, which described the author’s acquaintance and meeting with the beloved children’s television star. Following the film’s November 2019 theatrical release, Hanks was nominated for a sixth Oscar for his deft depiction of the kind Rogers.
Hanks has two films released in 2020. In July 2020, Hanks acted in and wrote the screenplay for the military film Greyhound. In 2021, Hanks starred in the science fiction thriller Finch directed by Miguel Sapochnik, which debuted on Apple TV+.
Hanks appeared in three films as the lead actor in 2022. He debuted as Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s only manager in the Baz Luhrmann film Elvis. Hanks went on to play Geppetto in Walt Disney Studios’ live-action Pinocchio movie. Hanks’ last movie of the year was A Man Called Otto, which was an English-language adaptation of the Swedish feature A Man Called Ove.
Personal Life
Hanks met actress and producer Samantha Lewes, whose real name is Susan Dillingham, while he was a college student. Colin and Elizabeth were the couple’s two children; they were married in 1978 and divorced in 1987.
In 1988, he tied the knot with actress Rita Wilson, who he had acted alongside in Volunteers. Hanks and Wilson have two children: Truman and Chester. In October 2013, Hanks announced that he was a Type 2 diabetic. Since 1984, Hanks has been an enthusiastic follower of Aston Villa, an English Premier League team.
