Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, voice actor, and screenwriter, who is best known for his roles in live-action films since 1988, including Big, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, A League of Their Own, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, That Thing You Do!, Saving Private Ryan, You've Got Mail, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, The Polar Express, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie Wilson's War, Angels & Demons, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.
For Disney, he voiced Woody in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story films and commercials, while his brother Jim Hanks voiced Woody in Toy Story Treats, video games, and other media. Tom also portrayed Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, Scott Turner in Turner & Hooch, Allen Bauer in Splash, James B. Donovan in Bridge of Spies, and Goldthwaite Higginson in the 2004 Touchstone Pictures film The Ladykillers. Additionally, he made a vocal cameo as himself in the Big City Greens episode "Cheap Show". He most recently played Geppetto in Robert Zemeckis' 2022 live-action adaptation of Pinocchio on Disney+.
Hanks was born in Concord, California, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn (née Frager) and itinerant cook Amos "Bud" Hanks. His mother was from a Portuguese family; their surname was originally "Fraga". His father had English ancestry, and through his line, Hanks is a distant cousin of President Abraham Lincoln and children's host Fred Rogers, whom he played. His parents divorced in 1960. Their three oldest children, Sandra (later Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer), Larry (who became an entomology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim (who also became an actor and filmmaker), remained with their mother in Red Bluff, California. In his childhood, Hanks' family moved often; by the age of ten, he had lived in ten different houses.
Roles
(Turner & Hooch)
(Saving Mr. Banks)
(The Ladykillers)
(Pinocchio;
2022 live-action adaptation)
Gallery
Trivia
- Tom Hanks is related to three famous people:
- Hanks is related to Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of America; he is the third cousin, four times removed of the former president. Hank's link to Honest Abe comes through the president's mother, Nancy Hanks. As a joke, in Toy Story 2, Woody mentions Abraham Lincoln's mother in reference to his voice actor.
- Not only did Hanks play Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, he was also actually a distant cousin of Walt himself.
- Hanks is also related to Fred Rogers, whom he portrays in the 2019 drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
- His favorite film Walt Disney produced was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.[1]
- He was considered to voice Dodger in Oliver & Company, along with several other actors, but the role was later given to Billy Joel.[citation needed]
- Hanks was originally considered for the role of Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, along with several other actors, before Liam Neeson was ultimately selected.[2]
- He was also originally offered to play V.A. Vandevere, the main villain of the 2019 live-action adaptation of Dumbo, before his Toy Story 3 co-star Michael Keaton took over the role.[citation needed]
- His role as Forrest Gump from the film of the same name was spoofed by Genie in Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
- He was mentioned in Muppets Most Wanted, as well as in the Bunk'd episode "Boo Boos and Birthdays" and in an episode of I Didn't Do It.
