Tom Hanks

Tue 9th Sep - 7:00PM

Romantic comedies; back to back Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump; gruelling films like Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan. Hollywood's A-list nice guy reveals his motivation.

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Tom Hanks
born: 09-07-1956
birth place: Concord, California

From the simple and loveable title character in Forrest Gump, to a charismatic and liberal Texas congressman in Charlie Wilson's War, Tom Hanks has consistently demonstrated his versatility as an actor.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ABOUT CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was the third of four children. Hanks’ parents, Amos, a chef, and Janet, a hospital worker, divorced when Tom was young. Tom, his older sister Sandra, and older brother Larry, went to live with their father while the youngest, Jim stayed with his mother.

The Hanks family grew through remarriage with Amos’s new wife bringing five children to the house. The marriage only lasted two years and Amos became a solo parent struggling to make ends meet for his children. The family moved around a lot, Tom would later tell an interviewer by the age of 10 he had had “three mothers, five grammar schools and ten houses”. With yet another new stepmother the Hanks family settled in Oakland, California where Tom attended Skyline High School, excelling at soccer and athletics. Hanks also became interested in acting at high school appearing in productions of South Pacific and Twelfth Night and winning the school’s best actor award in 1974.

Hanks continued acting, studying theatre at Chabot College while working part-time at a hotel. A performance of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh sealed Hanks’ ambition to become an actor and he transferred to California State University. Hanks struggled to win roles in the college productions so he auditioned for a theatre company’s production of Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. The director, Vincent Dowling, invited Tom to work at a Shakespeare Festival he was artistic director of in Cleveland. Hanks packed his bags and moved to Ohio to play Gremmie in The Taming of the Shrew. Hanks’ girlfriend, Samantha Lewes, moved with him when he returned to Cleveland the following year. This time he dropped out of college to take a role in Two Gentleman of Verona, which won him a best actor award from the Cleveland Critics Circle.

Hanks and Samantha moved to New York in 1979 where Samantha had their first child. Hanks struggled for work but had a couple of Shakespearean roles before making his screen debut in the slasher movie He Knows You’re Alone, followed by the TV movie Mazes and Monsters. In early 1980 Hanks landed his first major role as one of the lead characters in the sitcom Bosom Buddies. The Hanks family moved to California where their second chid, Elizabeth, was born. Bosom Buddies ended after two seasons and Hanks played small roles on Family Ties, The Love Boat and Happy Days where he fought The Fonz. On Happy Days he met Ron Howard, who played Richie Cunningham but, crucially, was also launching a career as a director. Howard asked Hanks to audition for a minor role in a movie he was making called Splash in 1984. Hanks ended up winning the lead role opposite Darryl Hannah, who played a mermaid washed up in modern day America. The film was a box office success and so his career was launched.

Hanks enjoyed a period of hits and misses over the next few years appearing in several comedic roles in films such as Bachelor Party, The Man With One Red Shoe, and The Money Pit. He also took a number of serious roles including Nothing In Common and Every Time We Say Goodbye. His marriage to Samantha ended in 1985, despite Tom taking a break from movies to involve his wife more in his work.

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