Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born on July 9, 1956. He is an actor and filmmaker from the United States. He is considered a cultural icon in the United States and is known for both comedic and serious roles.
He is one of the most well-known and well-known movie stars in the world. Hanks’ movies have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the country’s fourth highest-grossing actor.
Splash (1984), Bachelor Party (1984), Big (1988), and A League of Their Own (1988) were among Hanks’ first main roles, all of which received high critical acclaim (1992).
He received two Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his roles as a gay lawyer with AIDS in Philadelphia (1993) and the titular character in Forrest Gump (1994).
Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), Bridge of Spies (2015), and The Post (2017) are among the five films Hanks collaborated on with Steven Spielberg, as well as the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers, in which he made his directorial debut.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998) are romantic comedies; Apollo 13 (1995), The Green Mile (1999), Cast Away (2000), Road to Perdition (2002), and Cloud Atlas (2012) are dramas; and Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), Captain Phillips (2013), and Saving Mr. Banks (2013) are biographical dramas, Sully (2016), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) and News (2017) are among Hanks’ other films (2020).
He has also voiced Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story film series (1995–2019) and played the title character in the Robert Langdon film series.
Hanks has two Academy Award nominations out of a total of six. For his work as a producer on episodes including From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, Hanks has won seven Primetime Emmy Awards.
For his role in Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 2013.
In 2002, he got the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2004, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented him with the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film.
He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, and President Barack Obama honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor in 2016. He won the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes in 2020.
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Tom Hanks – Early Life
On July 9, 1956, in Concord, California, Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born to hospital worker Janet Marylyn and itinerant cook Amos Mefford Hanks. His mother was of Portuguese ancestry while his father was of English lineage.
In 1960, his parents split. The three oldest children, Sandra (later Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer), Larry (an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign), and Tom, moved to Red Bluff, California, to live with their father, while Jim (after an actor and filmmaker) stayed with his mother.
During his childhood, Hanks’ family moved frequently, and by the age of ten, he had lived in ten different residences.
While Hanks’ parents were Catholic and Mormon, he spent several years as a youngster as a “Bible-toting evangelical,” according to one journalist.
He was disliked by both kids and professors at school, later telling Rolling Stone magazine, “I was a geek, a weak. I was a dreadful, agonizingly shy person. I was also the guy who would throw out witty subtitles during filmstrips at the same time. But I stayed out of trouble. I was always a good kid who took care of himself.”
His father married Frances Wong, a Chinese-American woman from San Francisco, in 1965. Two of Frances’ three children lived with Hanks during his high school years. While attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California, Hanks appeared in several school plays, including South Pacific.
Hanks attended Chabot College in Hayward, California, where he studied theatre for two years before transferring to California State University, Sacramento. During a 2001 interview with sportscaster Bob Costas, Hanks was asked if he would prefer an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy.
He said that he would rather play halfback for the California Golden Bears and win a Heisman Trophy.
In 1986, he told New York magazine, “Acting classes appeared to be the perfect fit for a man who enjoyed making a lot of noise and being a little flashy. I used to spend a lot of time at plays. I wouldn’t bring someone on a date with me.
I’d simply drive to a theatre, purchase a ticket, sit in my seat and read the program, and then immerse myself entirely in the play.
Tom Hanks – Personal life
Tom Hanks married Samantha Lewes, an actress from the United States, in 1978. Their son is Colin Hanks, and their daughter is Elizabeth Hanks. In 1987, Hanks and Lewes divorced. She Lewes died of bone cancer in 2002.
On the set of the TV sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980–1982) in 1981, Tom Hanks met actress Rita Wilson. They reconnected in 1985 on the set of Volunteers.
They reconnected on the set of Volunteers in 1985. Wilson is of Greek and Bulgarian ancestry and is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. Before marrying Wilson, Hanks converted to her beliefs.
Hanks and Wilson married in 1988 and they have two sons. Chester Marlon “Chet” Hanks, the oldest, had regular appearances in Empire and Shameless and recorded a rap single in 2011. Truman Theodore, their youngest child, was born in 1995. Hanks splits his time between Los Angeles, California, and Ketchum, Idaho, with his family.
Olivia ( 2011) and Charlotte ( 2013), Colin’s daughters, and Micaiah (2016), Chet’s daughter, are Hanks’ three grandkids.
On the Late Show with David Letterman on October 7, 2013, Tom Hanks revealed that he has Type 2 diabetes. Despite being a fan of the Oakland Athletics and Raiders when they were situated in Oakland, Hanks announced in April 2017 that he will boycott the NFL for two years following the Raiders’ relocation to Las Vegas. Hanks has been a supporter of Aston Villa of the English Premier League since 1984.
Tom Hanks – Upcoming Projects
In 2021, Tom Hanks will star in Miguel Sapochnik’s science fiction drama Bios. The film was retitled from BIOS to Finch and purchased by Apple TV+ in May 2021 for a release on an uncertain date later that year, most likely during awards season.
In 2022, Tom Hanks will play Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s sole manager, in Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis.
Filming began in Queensland, Australia, at the start of 2020. In June 2022, the film will be released in theatres. Hanks was reportedly in talks to play Geppetto in Walt Disney Studios’ live-action Pinocchio production in November 2018.
In December 2020, his participation in the picture, which will be helmed by his longtime colleague Robert Zemeckis, was formally announced. Hanks is also set to star in a remake of A Man Called Ove in the United States.
Following Band of Brothers and The Pacific, HBO announced in January 2013 that it was working on a third World War II miniseries with Hanks and Spielberg based on Donald L. Miller’s book Masters of the Air.
Although few details regarding the film have surfaced since then, NME reported in March 2017 that production was underway under the working title The Mighty Eighth.
Due to HBO’s budget constraints, it was revealed on October 11, 2019, that the series would preserve the book’s title and that the miniseries will be streamed on Apple TV+. The film Masters of the Air is anticipated to cost $200 million and last at least eight hours.
Tom Hanks – Honors
- AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002
- Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award in 2006
- Kennedy Center Honors Medallion in 2014
- Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016
- Along with retired NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and Gordon H. Mueller, president and co-founder of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, he received the French Legion of Honor for his depiction of World War II and support of World War II veterans.
- Honorary citizen of Greece in 2019.
- Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020.
Tom Hank’s breakout performance was in the age-defying comedy Big (1988), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He co-starred with Meg Ryan in Nora Ephron’s romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle in 1993. Tom Hanks is one of Hollywood’s wealthiest actors.
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