Tom Hanks biography 2022

Actor Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks biography

Tom Hanks was born July 9, 1956, in Concord, California, USA.

Tom and his elder siblings were raised by their father, Amos Hanks.

Amos Hanks was a chef, forcing his family to move every six months to pursue jobs. This unstable upbringing meant many schools for Tom, who had to readjust to his new surroundings every semester.

Initially a shy boy, Tom Hanks dealt with these readjustments by becoming the class clown and taking on different personas. He took these "characters" to the stage and began participating in high school plays.

As a student at Chabot Junior College saw production for a class, which convinced him that he wanted to become an actor.

After his outstanding school performance, he was recruited by the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Ohio.

After 3 years of experience with the Shakespeare festival, Hanks headed to New York with big dreams.

Going through the requisite auditions before hitting it big, Hanks landed his debut role in 1980 in the film, He Knows You're Alone.

He then landed a role in the drag ABC comedy, Bosom Buddies, a part which forced him to wear dresses and heels for 2 seasons.

Following the bosom stint, Tom Hanks did the rounds on popular '80s sitcoms such as Family Ties, Taxi, and Happy Days, which led to his role in Splash.

Director Ron Howard (of Happy Days fame) tapped Hanks to audition for the supporting role in Splash.

The mermaid romance made waves, but Hanks was headed for calm waters with his subsequent movies, such as Bachelor Party, Volunteers (where he met his wife, Rita Wilson), The Money Pit, Nothing In Common, and Dragnet.

But he hit it Big with the 1988 comedy about a teenager trapped in a man's body. In 1993, Tom Hanks became an A-list actor.

Forgiven for career choices such as The Bonfire of the Vanities and Turner and Hooch,

Hanks won the hearts of women in Sleepless in Seattle (reuniting him with his Joe Versus the Volcano co-star, Meg Ryan) and the hearts of even more as an AIDS patient in Philadelphia.

He also won the Academy Award for Best Actor that year and picked up the gold statue again for his title role in Forrest Gump the following year. Ever since then, it was clear that everything Hanks touched turned to gold. In 1995, he went to the Moon on Apollo 13 and lent his voice to cowboy doll Woody in Disney's animated feature, Toy Story.

He got back into the astronaut's uniform for the made-for-TV miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon; re-teamed with his Sleepless co-star for the comedy You've Got Mail; and returned as the optimistic Woody for the hit Toy Story 2.

On a more serious note, Tom Hanks starred as Captain John H. Miller in Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and as a prison guard in The Green Mile, both of which garnered Hanks Best Actor Oscar nominations.

Tom Hanks has proved that his talent is multi-faceted: as a regular host on Saturday Night Live, he has established his comedic side, while as director of features such as That Thing You Do! and the television miniseries Band of Brothers, and producer of a bevy of elements (most notably Cast Away),

Hanks is married to Rita Wilson, with whom he has two children. He has another two children with his ex-wife, Samantha Lewes.

One of the most respected and likable men in Hollywood (and the only actor worthy of a $20 million salary, according to Entertainment Weekly), Tom Hanks can next be seen as an island-bound Federal Express inspector in Cast Away, as well as in the feature, Road To Perdition.



last updated October 2022

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