Tom Hanks

Actor

• Born: July 9, 1956
• Place of Birth: Concord, California

Hanks, one of the most prolific actors of the modern era, has demonstrated an ability to play a variety of dramatic roles addressing a range of social issues.

In the 1990s, comedies such as Joe Versus the Volcano (1990); romantic films such as Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998); historical dramas such as A League of Their Own (1992), Apollo 13 (1995), and Saving Private Ryan (1998); and children’s films such as Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999) all demonstrated Tom Hanks’s talent for understanding his characters and realistically portraying their motivations and emotions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hanks was known mostly for his roles in comedies such as Splash (1984), The Money Pit (1986), and Big (1988).

Although Splash and Big were both commercial successes—Splash grossed almost $70 million at the box office and Big not only grossed more than $150 million but also earned Hanks an Academy Award nomination—they were still regarded as lightweight, family-friendly comedies. It was not until the 1990s that Hanks began to delve more deeply into issue-based dramas where he could challenge his abilities as an actor. Two Academy Awards for Best Actor, for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994), as well as two additional nominations for Best Actor, for Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Cast Away (2000), proved that his change in focus was a wise decision.

With this goal in mind, Hanks began his career as a dramatic actor. Philadelphia, a semihistorical examination of one of the earliest acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) discrimination cases; Forrest Gump, a film based on a 1986 novel by Winston Groom that chronicles the social upheaval of the 1960s; Apollo 13, which portrays the terrifying events leading up to a near-fatal National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission failure; and Saving Private Ryan, a panoramic film depicting the lives and missions of World War II-era soldiers, are all examples of films that addressed a variety of social issues, from homophobia to the plight of deployed soldiers. In particular, Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan caused Hanks, and filmgoers, to consider more deeply the sacrifices that previous generations of soldiers have made in the name of American ideals.

Following Cast Away, Hanks enjoyed continued success as an actor, producer, and director in a variety of commercially and critically successful films and television series. In 2001, he was executive producer and directed an episode of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, which won in the outstanding miniseries and outstanding directing categories at the 2002 Primetime Emmys. In 2006, Hanks took on the role of Robert Langdon in the blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Dan Brown. The following year, he starred in Charlie Wilson's War and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance. Over the next few years, he returned to familiar characters in The Da Vinci Code's sequel, Angels and Demons (2009), and in Toy Story 3 in 2010. Hanks made his directorial debut in 2011 with the film Larry Crowne, which he cowrote, produced, and starred in. He likewise starred in a number of successful films based on novels: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011), Cloud Atlas (2012), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), and A Hologram for the King (2016). He was nominated for another Golden Globe for his performance in the title role in Captain Phillips (2013). He has also proven to be a successful television producer; many of his miniseries, including Game Change (2012), John Adams (2008), and Olive Kitteridge (2014), have won Emmys. In 2016, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Also in 2016, Hanks starred in the drama telling the real-life story of the pilot who made an emergency landing on the Hudson River, Sully; reprised his role as Langdon in the next installment of the Da Vinci Code series, Inferno; and produced the sequel to the hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding. After appearing in the dramatic, novel-based thriller The Circle and the Academy Award–nominated The Post in 2017, in addition to publishing his first book of short stories, Uncommon Type, he served as executive producer on the sequel to another hit film, Mamma Mia!, in 2018. The following year not only saw Hanks reprise his role in providing the voice of Woody for Toy Story 4, but it also saw him step into the shoes of the iconic, beloved children's television show host Fred Rogers for the feature film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. For his portrayal of Rogers, he was nominated for a 2020 Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In March 2020, having accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award in January, Hanks announced that he and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19 amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic while filming a biographical film about Elvis Presley in Australia. Filming was put on hold, and, after quarantining for two weeks, Hanks and his wife returned to the US. Following his recovery and return to Australia to complete filming on the Elvis project in September, he was seen starring in the Western News of the World (2020), based on the acclaimed 2016 novel of the same name written by Paulette Jiles. The film Elvis, for which Hanks played the character of Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's longtime manager, was released in 2022. That year Hanks also appeared as Geppetto in the live-action remake of Pinocchio, directed by Robert Zemeckis, and as the title character in A Man Called Otto, based on the popular 2012 novel of the same name by Swedish author Fredrik Backman.

Hanks returned to writing in 2023, releasing his debut novel that year called The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. As the title suggests, the novel is about the film industry, and Hanks explained in interviews that the plot was drawn from his own experiences as a Hollywood actor. That same year, he also starred in the quirky comedy/drama Asteroid City.

Impact

Throughout Tom Hanks's career, he has appeared in dozens of films that have put his acting range to the test by the sheer variety of genres. He has enjoyed one of the longest and most varied careers in Hollywood today.

Bibliography

Gardner, David. The Tom Hanks Enigma: The Biography of the World’s Most Intriguing Movie Star. John Blake, 2006.

Hanks, Tom. "Tom Hanks Explains It All." Interview by David Marchese. The New York Times, 14 July 2022, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/13/magazine/tom-hanks-interview.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2023.

Hanks, Tom. "Tom Hanks: 'You Get Lazy Making Movies.'" The Talks, 9 July 2014, the-talks.com/interview/tom-hanks/. Accessed 23 June 2016.

Pfeiffer, Lee, and Michael Lewis. The Films of Tom Hanks. Citadel, 1996.

Rhys, Matthew, and Tom Hanks. "What Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys Learned from Mister Rogers for 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.'" Interview by Yvonne Villarreal. Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2019, www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-15/beautiful-day-in-the-neighborhood-tom-hanks-matthew-rhys. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Thorpe, Vanessa. "Honest, Brave, Modest: Why the World Can't Get Enough of Tom Hanks." The Observer, Guardian News and Media, 31 Jan. 2021, www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/31/honest-brave-modest-why-the-world-cant-get-enough-of-tom-hanks. Accessed 22 May 2024.

"Tom Hanks." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0000158/. Accessed 22 May 2024.

"Tom Hanks: 'I've Made a Lot of Movies That Didn't Make Sense—or Money.'" The Guardian, www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/14/tom-hanks-movies-didnt-make-sense-or-money-interview-short-stories. Accessed 5 Nov. 2018.

"Tom Hanks Biography." Biography, A&E Television Networks, 20 Apr. 2021, www.biography.com/people/tom-hanks-9327661. Accessed 22 May 2024.