Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is an American actor, producer, and filmmaker whose career has combined broad commercial success with critically acclaimed dramatic performances. He was born on July 9, 1956, in Concord, California, and studied theater at California State University, Sacramento, although he left before graduating to pursue professional acting. His early breakthrough came through the television sitcom Bosom Buddies, which ran from 1980 to 1982. He then became widely known for the comedies Splash, The Money Pit, and Big. In Big, released in 1988, Hanks played a child who mysteriously becomes an adult, earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Hanks won consecutive Academy Awards for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. In Philadelphia, he portrayed Andrew Beckett, a lawyer dismissed from his firm after developing AIDS, a role that addressed homophobia and the AIDS crisis in mainstream American cinema. Forrest Gump, directed by Robert Zemeckis, cast him as an Alabama man whose life intersects with major events in twentieth-century American history. The film won Best Picture, and Hanks’s performance made the line “Life is like a box of chocolates” part of popular culture. His later work has included several major collaborations with director Steven Spielberg. Hanks played Captain John Miller in Saving Private Ryan, a World War II film noted for its intense opening sequence on Omaha Beach. He portrayed pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Sully, appeared as lawyer James B. Donovan in Bridge of Spies, and played the title character in The Terminal. Hanks also voiced Woody in Pixar’s Toy Story films, helping establish one of animation’s most recognizable characters. As a producer, he helped create the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, which dramatized NASA’s Apollo program and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries. He also produced and starred in the historical miniseries Band of Brothers. Hanks wrote, directed, and starred in That Thing You Do!, a 1996 film about a fictional 1960s pop group. Hanks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. He is married to actress and producer Rita Wilson, and they have two sons together. His career remains notable for its range, spanning romantic comedy, historical drama, animation, war cinema, and socially conscious storytelling while maintaining an unusually durable connection with audiences worldwide.