Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks was married to actress Samantha Lewes from 1978 to 1987. They had two children, Colin Hanks and Elizabeth Hanks. He married actress Rita Wilson in 1988, and they have two sons, Chet Hanks and Truman Hanks. Truman portrayed a younger version of his father's character in A Man Called Otto.

Hanks has Portuguese ancestry through his mother, Janet Marylyn, whose family originally used the surname Fraga, and mostly English ancestry through his father, Amos Mefford Hanks. His parents divorced in 1960, after which he moved frequently between family homes. He has said that he had lived in ten different houses by the age of ten.

In 2013, Hanks said that he had type 2 diabetes. He later described managing the condition through lifestyle changes, including a healthier diet and avoiding film roles that require drastic weight changes. He and Wilson became honorary citizens of Greece in 2019 after their support for people affected by the 2018 Mati wildfire.

Hanks began performing in school and community theater before joining the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. His internship expanded into three years of work in lighting, set design, stage management, and other areas of theater production. In 1978, he won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for playing Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

After moving to New York City, Hanks made his film debut in He Knows You're Alone and gained television attention as Kip Wilson in the sitcom Bosom Buddies, in which he co-starred with Peter Scolari. His performance in the comedy Splash, directed by Ron Howard, led to starring roles in Bachelor Party, Volunteers, and The Money Pit.

The success of Big in 1988 established Hanks as a major film star and earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He broadened his work with Nothing in Common and Punchline, then starred in A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, and Philadelphia. His performance as Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and he won the same award the following year for playing the title character in Forrest Gump. Those consecutive victories made him the second actor to achieve the feat after Spencer Tracy.

Hanks continued his run of acclaimed performances with Apollo 13, in which he played astronaut Jim Lovell, and Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg. He also began voicing Sheriff Woody in Pixar's Toy Story franchise, starting with the original film in 1995 and returning for its subsequent installments.

Hanks worked with Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, and The Post. Their collaboration also included the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Masters of the Air. Hanks co-produced several of these projects through Playtone, the production company he founded with Gary Goetzman.

His other major roles during this period included the marooned FedEx analyst in Cast Away, prison guard Paul Edgecomb in The Green Mile, and hitman Michael Sullivan in Road to Perdition. He also played Professor Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno.

Hanks made his directorial and screenwriting debut with That Thing You Do! in 1996, a comedy about the rise and fall of a fictional 1960s rock band. He later wrote, directed, and starred in Larry Crowne. He wrote the screenplay for Greyhound, in which he played a naval commander escorting Allied convoys across the Atlantic during World War II.

In 2013, Hanks made his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy, playing journalist Mike McAlary and earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. He also portrayed Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, airline captain Chesley Sullenberger in Sully, Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and Colonel Tom Parker in Elvis.

Hanks has written the short story collection Uncommon Type and the novel The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. He has also produced television projects including From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific, Game Change, and Olive Kitteridge. His major honors include the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.