Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks (born July 9, 1956, Concord, California, U.S.), American actor whose cheerful everyman attitude made him a natural for leading parts in popular films. In the 1990s, he broadened his comedy range and played drama leads. Tom Hanks, who won two Oscars and appeared in over 90 films, has been a beloved leading man since 1984’s Splash. 

Hanks is 66 in 2022. He has never retired from performing.

Early Life and Background

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn (Frager) and itinerant chef Amos Mefford Hanks. His mother’s “Fraga” family was Portuguese, while his father was primarily English. Tom grew up in a “fractured” family. He relocated frequently following his parents’ divorce, living with step-families. No issues, no alcoholism—just a troubled childhood. No collegiate acting experience, he attributes not getting cast in a college play to starting his career. He auditioned for a community theatre performance downtown and was invited to Cleveland by the director, where his acting career began.

Ron Howard was making Splash (1984), a fantasy-comedy about a mermaid who falls for a businessman. Howard considered Hanks for the main character’s wisecracking sibling, but John Candy was cast. Hanks played the lead and the picture grossed over $69 million, surprising everyone. Hanks’ career climbed after numerous disappointments and Dragnet (1987), a middling hit. The fantasy-comedy Big (1988) made him a Hollywood star as an actor and box office draw. Hanks received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the film.

A League of Their Own (1992) brought Hanks back to the top as a retired baseball player turned manager. Hanks said his early acting was bad but improved. Hanks told Vanity Fair that his “modern era of movie making… because enough self-discovery has gone on… My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top” This “modern era” began for Hanks with Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and Philadelphia (1993). The former was a hit about a widower who finds love on the radio. Most critics believed that Hanks’ depiction made him one of the top romantic-comedy actors of his time. Time magazine’s Richard Schickel termed it “charming”.

He played an AIDS-afflicted gay lawyer who sues his Philadelphia firm for discrimination. Hanks shed 35 pounds and thinned his hair to seem unwell for the part. Leah Rozen said in People, “Hanks’ ability to play a character, not a saint, is responsible for Philadelphia’s popularity. He delivers a brilliant, nuanced performance that merits an Oscar.” The 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor went to Hanks for Philadelphia. He stated that his high school theatre instructor Rawley Farnsworth and close friend John Gilkerson were gay in his winning speech.

Hanks’ 1994 hit Forrest Gump made over $600 million worldwide after Philadelphia. Hanks said: “When I read Gump’s script, I envisioned it as a magnificent, uplifting film that would inspire viewers to feel positive about their lives. I learned that from movies 100 million times as a youngster. I still do.” Forrest Gump earned Hanks his second Best performer Oscar, making him the second performer to do so.

Hanks played astronaut and commander Jim Lovell in Apollo 13 (1995), reuniting with Ron Howard. Critics praised the picture and its cast, which starred Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The film won two of nine Academy Award nominations. Hanks voiced Sheriff Woody in Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story (1995) later that year. The musical comedy That Thing You Do! (1996), about the emergence and dissolution of a 1960s pop group, was his directorial debut a year later. He also produced.

Trademarks

Often portrays regular people in exceptional settings

Good-natured, likeable individual

Often collaborates with Zemeckis, Spielberg, and Howard.

Fun Facts

1) Hanks is distantly connected to Lincoln. 

Hanks is distantly connected to Abraham Lincoln, a famous president. Lincoln’s great-great-grandfather was John Hanks, Tom Hanks’ great-great-great-grandfather. 

2) Hanks sold peanuts as a teen.

Hanks worked at baseball events selling peanuts and soda as a youngster. He told Jimmy Kimmel, ‘I assumed it would be like in a TV program, but I got robbed twice.’ The professional merchants also disliked adolescents manning the games and often got hostile. 

3) ‘Wilson’ follows Hanks most. 

While Hanks’ many films feature iconic lines like ‘Houston, we have a problem,’ and ‘run, Forest, run,’ Hanks remarked that the sentence people yell at him most, anywhere, is from Castaway and dates back to 2000. Line: ‘Wilsonnnnnnnn!’

4) Tom Hanks funded Forrest Gump. 

Paramount Pictures, who made Forrest Gump, refused to pay for the cross-country chase sequences. Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis chose to divide the extra expenditure for a larger portion of the earnings to avoid losing the sequence. 

5). Typewriter collector

Tom Hanks became obsessed with typewriters after a buddy gave him one. He said in an interview that he appreciates how they precisely convert your ideas to paper. Hanks collected almost 250 models!

6) NASA named an asteroid after actor

NASA named a new asteroid 12818 Tom Hanks after Hollywood stars. 

7) Happy Days helped The major break for Tom Hanks 

Hanks had a tiny role in Happy Days. Hanks impressed showrunner Ron Howard despite his little role. A few years later, Howard cast Hanks in Splash, launching his film career. 

8) That Thing You Do stars his widow and two kids

That Thing You Do was written and directed by Tom Hanks in 1996. He had his wife Rita Wilson play a waiter, and his children Colin and Elizabeth Hanks had minor cameos. Only this film has all four actors. 

9) The US Navy awarded him the highest civilian honour.

The US Navy awarded Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg the highest civilian honour for Saving Private Ryan, one of the most accurate renditions of the Normandy landings. 

Career

Hanks went to New York City in 1979 and made his cinematic debut in the low-budget slasher He Knows You’re Alone (1980).and starred in Mazes and Monsters. Earlier that year, he played Callimaco in the Riverside Shakespeare Company’s production of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Mandrake, directed by Daniel Southern. The next year, Hanks played Kip Wilson in the ABC Bosom Buddies pilot. He and Peter Scolari played young advertising guys compelled to dress as ladies to live in a cheap all-female motel.Hanks and Scolari appeared on Make Me Laugh in the 1970s. Hanks came to LA for the part. Although viewership was low, television reviewers praised Bosom Buddies for two seasons. “The first day I saw him on the set,” co-producer Ian Praiser told Rolling Stone, “I thought, ‘Too bad he won’t be in television for long.’” I knew he’d appear in movies in two years.”

Hanks appeared on a 1982 episode of Happy Days (“A Case of Revenge,” playing a disgruntled former classmate of Fonzie) and met Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, who were writing Splash (1984), a romantic comedy fantasy about a mermaid who falls in love with a human to be directed by Ron Howard. Ganz and Mandel advised Howard to cast Hanks. Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character’s wisecracking sibling, but John Candy was cast. Hanks played the lead in Splash, a surprising box office blockbuster that grossed over US$69 million. His 1984 sex comedy Bachelor Party was also a smash. Family Ties featured Hanks three times as Elyse Keaton’s drunken brother Ned Donnelly in 1983–84.

With Nothing in Common (1986), Jackie Gleason played a young man estranged from his father. Hanks moved from comedy to drama. Hanks told Rolling Stone, “It transformed my cinematic career goals. It was partly the substance and what we were saying. Besides that, it concentrated on relationships. The narrative was about a man and his father, unlike The Money Pit, which is about a man and his mansion.” He got a talent pool acting/producing deal with The Walt Disney Studios in 1987. Hanks’ career climbed after a couple more disappointments and a minor success with Dragnet.

The 1988 fantasy comedy Big made Hanks a Hollywood star as an actor and box office draw. Hanks received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the film. Punchline, starring him and Sally Field as struggling comedians, followed Big later that year.

Hanks then had box-office underperformers including The ‘Burbs (1989), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), and The Bonfire of the Vanities. He played a greedy Wall Streeter in a hit-and-run accident in the final. Turner & Hooch (1989) was Hanks’ only profitable picture.

Established star 1990s

A League of Their Own (1992) brought Hanks back to the top as a retired baseball player turned manager. Hanks felt his early acting was poor but improved. Hanks told Vanity Fair that his “modern era of moviemaking… because enough self-discovery has gone on… My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top” Hanks’ “modern era” began in 1993 with” Sleepless in Seattle and Philadelphia. The former was a hit about a widower who finds love on the radio. TIME’s Richard Schickel rated his performance “charming,” and most critics felt that Hanks’ depiction made him one of his generation’s top romantic-comedy actors.

He played an AIDS-afflicted gay lawyer who sues his Philadelphia firm for discrimination. Hanks shed 35 pounds (16 kg) and thinned his hair to seem unwell for the part. Leah Rozen said in People, “Hanks’ ability to play a character, not a saint, is responsible for Philadelphia’s popularity. He delivers a brilliant, nuanced performance that merits an Oscar.” The 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor went to Hanks for Philadelphia. He stated that his high school theatre instructor Rawley Farnsworth and close friend John Gilkerson were gay in his winning speech.

Hanks’ 1994 film Forrest Gump made over $600 million worldwide after Philadelphia. Hanks said: “When I read Gump’s script, I envisioned it as a magnificent, uplifting film that would inspire viewers to feel positive about their lives. I learned that from movies 100 million times as a youngster. I still do.” Forrest Gump earned Hanks his second Best performer Oscar, making him the second performer to do so. First winner Spencer Tracy won 1937–38. Hanks and Tracy were 37 and 38 when they won Academy Awards.

Apollo 13 reunited Hanks with Ron Howard as astronaut and commander Jim Lovell in 1995. Critics praised the picture and its cast, which starred Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The film won two of nine Academy Award nominations. Hanks voiced Sheriff Woody in Disney/Pixar’s CGI-animated smash Toy Story later that year.

That Thing You Do!, about a 1960s pop group, was Hanks’ 1996 directorial debut. He also produced. Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman founded Playtone, a record and film production firm named after the film’s record label.

From the Earth to the Moon, an HBO documentary, was executive produced, co-written, and co-directed by Hanks. The 12-part series covered the space program’s beginnings, Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell’s missions, and Moon landings’ personal effects. The Emmy-winning project cost US$68 million, making it one of the most costly TV projects.

In 1998, Hanks’ next project was costly. He and Steven Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan about a trek across war-torn France after D-Day to find a soldier. The film community, critics, and public praised it. It was one of the best war pictures ever made and garnered Spielberg his second Academy Award for director and Hanks another Best Actor nomination. Hanks and Meg Ryan reunited for You’ve Got Mail, a remake of 1940’s The Shop Around the Corner, later that year. Hanks featured in Stephen King’s The Green Mile in 1999. He voiced Woody in Toy Story 2 as well.

2000s

Hanks won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for playing a marooned FedEx systems analyst in Robert Zemeckis’s 2000 film Cast Away.The Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert wrote, “Hanks proves here again what an effective actor he is, never straining for an effect, always persuasive even in this unlikely situation, winning our sympathy with his eyes and his body language when there’s no one else on the screen.”

Hanks directed and produced the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, which won an Emmy. The September 11 program America: A Tribute to Heroes and the documentary Rescued From the Closet included him. He plays an anti-hero hitman on the run with his son in an adaptation of Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner’s DC Comics graphic novel Road to Perdition alongside American Beauty director Sam Mendes. Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Catch Me If You Can, based on Frank Abagnale, Jr.’s life, alongside Spielberg again that year. Hanks and Rita Wilson made My Big Fat Greek Wedding the same year. In August 2007, he, co-producers Rita Wilson and Gary Goetzman, and writer and actor Nia Vardalos sued Gold Circle Films for their portion of movie revenues. On June 12, 2002, Hanks became the youngest recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award at 45.

The Ladykillers, The Terminal, and The Polar Express, a Zemeckis family picture in which Hanks performed many motion capture parts, were his 2004 features. Hanks explained his project selection in a USA Weekend interview: “I can’t just watch another movie after A League of Their Own. It must motivate me… A strong desire to make that movie is needed. I assume I’ll take whatever route to accomplish it well “. Hanks was elected AMPAS vice president in August 2005.

The Da Vinci Code, based on Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, was Hanks’ next feature. The film made over US$750 million worldwide after its May 19, 2006 U.S. release. Following the film was Ken Burns’ 2007 documentary The War. Hanks narrated Al McIntosh’s WWII articles for the documentary. Hanks topped Forbes’ 1,500-person “most trusted celebrities” list in 2006. In 2006, Hanks produced the animated children’s film The Ant Bully.

In The Simpsons Movie, Hanks appeared in a cameo as himself in an advertisement suggesting the U.S. government has lost credibility and is purchasing some of his. He also appeared in the credits, requesting privacy in public. Later in 2006, Hanks produced the British comedy Starter for Ten about working-class students competing on University Challenge.

Hanks plays Democratic Texas Congressman Charles Wilson in Mike Nichols’s 2007 film Charlie Wilson’s War (written by Aaron Sorkin). The film debuted on December 21, 2007, and Hanks was nominated for a Golden Globe. Hanks portrayed the father of Colin, a young guy who becomes a tour manager for a failing mentalist (John Malkovich), in the comedy-drama The Great Buck Howard (2008). His character disliked his son’s job choice. He executive produced John Adams and Mamma Mia the same year.

Hanks’ next picture, Angels & Demons, was released on May 15, 2009, based on Dan Brown’s novel. On April 11, 2007, it was announced that Hanks would repeat his role as Robert Langdon and get the biggest actor remuneration ever. The next day, he impersonated himself for the Celebrity Jeopardy comedy on Saturday Night Live, his 10th performance. In 2009, Hanks produced Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are, based on Maurice Sendak’s children’s book.

2010s

In 2010, Hanks, Tim Allen, and John Ratzenberger were invited to a movie theatre to witness a whole story reel of Toy Story 3, where he reprised his role as Woody. First animated picture to make over $1 billion globally and highest-grossing at the time. The Pacific miniseries was executive produced by him.

He directed and acted in Larry Crowne, a 2011 romantic comedy, with Julia Roberts.Fewer than 35% of 175 Rotten Tomatoes reviews praised the film. He appeared in 2011 drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He voiced Cleveland Carr in his 2012 online series Electric City. He executive produced the miniseries Game Change and acted in Cloud Atlas, directed by the Wachowskis.

Hanks was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Captain Phillips in 2013. He played Captain Richard Phillips in Captain Phillips with Barkhad Abdi, based on the Maersk Alabama hijacking.He played Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, co-starring Emma Thompson and directed by John Lee Hancock, the first major film to do so. Hanks made his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy, which earned him a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play.

The New Yorker published Hanks’ 2014 short story “Alan Bean Plus Four” on October 27. The short novella is named after Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean and follows four buddies who go to the moon. Katy Waldman of Slate called his debut short story “mediocre” and said “Hanks’ shopworn ideas about technology might have yet sung if they hadn’t been wrapped in too-clever lit mag-ese”. Hanks told The New Yorker that space has always captivated him. He told the magazine that he created plastic rocket models as a boy and watched 1960s space mission broadcasts.

In March 2015, Hanks lip-synced most of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “I Really Like You” music video while going about his regular routine. He played lawyer James B. Donovan in Steven Spielberg’s historical movie Bridge of Spies, which negotiated the Soviet Union’s release of pilot Francis Gary Powers in exchange for KGB spy Rudolf Abel. It debuted in October 2015 to favourable reviews.In April 2016, Hanks played Alan Clay in the comedy-drama A Hologram for the King, based on the 2012 novel. Tom Tykwer directed him again after Cloud Atlas in 2012.

Clint Eastwood’s September 2016 film Sully starring Hanks as aeroplane captain Chesley Sullenberger. He reprised Robert Langdon in Inferno (2016) and co-starred with Emma Watson in The Circle (2017). He voiced David S. Pumpkins in the October 28, 2017 NBC Halloween Special, a role he has played on Saturday Night Live.

Toy Story 4 debuted on June 21, 2019, with Hanks reprising his Sheriff Woody voice. Hanks was nominated for his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Marielle Heller’s biographical picture A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which represented Fred Rogers. The Sony Pictures film debuted on November 22, 2019.

2020s

Hanks hosted Saturday Night Live on April 11, 2020, his first TV appearance since COVID-19.Hanks gave an introductory monologue from his residence but did not perform in any skits. This is the first SNL episode after the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, including skits taped remotely from cast members’ homes. SNL’s first program to be totally prerecorded and the second to not be taped at Studio 8H.

Hanks released two films in 2020. Hanks created and acted in Greyhound, a war picture, in July 2020. Sony Pictures planned to distribute the film theatrically in June 2020, but the COVID-19 epidemic forced Apple TV+ to buy distribution rights, which it released in July 2020. Hanks reunited with Paul Greengrass in the western drama News of the World, released on December 23, 2020. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney, Hanks’ performance was “Hanks has a history playing nice guys, so his casting here is perfect. However, his soulfulness, grief, and genuine compassion make this an immensely delightful performance to see, with fresh levels of kindness and remorse revealed.”

Finch, directed by Miguel Sapochnik and distributed via Apple TV+ in 2021, starring Hanks. Connor Ratliff said on Late Night With Seth Meyers on March 2, 2022, that Hanks will finally be questioned for Dead Eyes’ season three finale. Hanks and Ratliff spoke 22 years after Ratliff was set to start filming an episode of Band of Brothers and was sacked for having “dead eyes”. The 90-minute podcast was termed a “rare show that gives you a perfect conclusion”, “surprisingly funny and empathetic”, and “thrilling” by Paul Scheer.

Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann, stars Hanks as Elvis Presley’s lone manager Tom Parker in 2022. Shooting began in Queensland, Australia, in 2020. The movie debuted in June 2022.Hanks was reportedly in discussions to play Geppetto in Walt Disney Studios’ live-action Pinocchio in November 2018. His participation in Zemeckis’ film was announced in December 2020. On September 8, 2022, Disney+ published it.  A Man Called Otto, an English-language version of A Man Called Ove, was his third feature. Sony Pictures released it in December 2022.

Hanks’ first collaboration with Wes Anderson, Asteroid City, was revealed in July 2021. Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, and Bryan Cranston joined Hanks. The 2023 Cannes Film Festival presented the film to mixed reviews.

Awards and honours

Hanks has been nominated for several awards as an actor and producer. 6 Academy Award nominations gave Hanks two consecutive Best Actor victories for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump in 1993 and 1994. In 2013, Hanks was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Lucky Guy by Nora Ephron. Hanks has also won 7 Primetime Emmy Awards for his work as a producer on limited series and television films like From the Earth to the Moon (1998), Band of Brothers (2002), John Adams (2008), The Pacific (2010), Game Change (2012), and Olive Kitteridge (2015).

Honours

2002: AFI Lifetime Achievement Award

2006: Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award

Kennedy Center Honors Medallion 2014

2016, Presidential Medal of Freedom.

2016: French Legion of Honor, Chevalier (Knight), for his portrayal of World War II and support of soldiers, together with retired NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and Gordon H. Mueller, president and co-founder of the National WWII Museum, New Orleans.

2019: Honorary citizen of Greece.

2020 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award

Personal life

In 1978, Hanks married Samantha Lewes (1952–2002). Colin, a 1977 actor, and Elizabeth, a 1982 daughter, were their children.  In 1987, Hanks and Lewes divorced. Lewes, 49, died of bone cancer in 2002.

Hanks met Rita Wilson on Bosom Buddies (1980–1982) in 1981. They reunited on Volunteers in 1985. Greek Orthodox Church member Wilson is Greek and Bulgarian. Hanks converted to her religion before marriage. Wilson married Hanks in 1988 and they had two boys. The elder Chet recorded a rap single in 2011 and appeared in Empire and Shameless.Truman, born in 1995, played his father’s younger self in A Man Called Otto (2022). Hanks and his family live in Los Angeles and Ketchum, Idaho.

Hanks attends church regularly. He stated, “When I go to church, I contemplate the mysteries. I contemplate ‘why people are like they are’ and ‘why awful things happen to good people’ and ‘why wonderful things happen to bad people’ . The enigma is practically the grand unifying principle of humanity.”

Hanks revealed Type 2 diabetes in October 2013.

After the Raiders filed for relocation to Las Vegas in April 2017, Hanks announced he will boycott the NFL for two years despite being a fan of the Oakland Athletics and Raiders.

Aston Villa has been Hanks’ favourite team since 1984.

In November 2019, shortly before the release of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, in which Hanks plays Fred Rogers, he discovered on Ancestry.com that he and Rogers were 6th cousins, and both were descendants of Johannes Meffert (1732–1795), who was born in Schöneck, Hesse, Germany (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) and immigrated to the US in the 18th century, settling in Kentucky and changing his last name to Mefford.

Hanks is also related to Abraham Lincoln. Killing Lincoln (2011) was narrated by Hanks.

Hanks and his family became Greek citizens on December 27, 2019, when Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos signed an honorary naturalisation order for their “exceptional services to Greece”.Hanks, Wilson, and their children received honorary citizenship for raising awareness and seeking relief after a July 2018 wildfire in Mati, near Athens, killed more than 100 people. Theodorikakos claimed Hanks “showed real interest in the people who suffered from the Mati fire and promoted this issue in the global media”.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, and his wife gave Hanks and Wilson Greek passports on July 26, 2020.

Political opinions, activism

Hanks donated to various Democratic lawmakers and posted a Barack Obama endorsement video on MySpace in 2008. The 2012 Obama for America documentary The Road We’ve Travelled was narrated by him. Hanks supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Hanks vocally opposed Proposition 8, a 2008 California constitutional amendment that defined marriage as a man-woman relationship. Proposition 8 succeeded with 52% of the vote despite Hanks and others raising almost US$44 million to oppose it, compared to supporters’ $39 million.The Ninth Circuit overturned the lower court’s injunction in June 2013, allowing Governor Jerry Brown to restart same-sex marriages. Hanks labelled Proposition 8 supporters “un-American” and blasted LDS Church members, who supported the law, for their views on marriage and participation in promoting it in a January 2009 TV series.A week later, he apologised, adding that voting one’s conscience is most American.

Hanks, an environmentalist, owns a Toyota RAV4 EV and the first AC Propulsion eBox. The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? describes him as an EV1 lessee before its recall. He was waiting for an Aptera 2 Series.

Hanks chairs the Elizabeth Dole Foundation Hidden Heroes Campaign. The initiative aims to spark a national movement to better serve military and veteran caregivers.

Hanks donated an espresso machine after touring the White House in 2004 and seeing that the press corps lacked a coffee pot. He gave new machinery in 2010 and 2017. His 2017 gift included a note: “To the White House Press Corps, Keep fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Especially for the truth.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden was his 2020 presidential endorsement.

In other activities

Hanks, a NASA devotee, aspired to be an astronaut. Hanks is on the Board of Governors of the Wernher von Braun-founded National Space Society.He created the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon about Apollo astronauts. Hanks also co-wrote and produced the IMAX Moon landing film Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D.  The premiere of Passport to the Universe at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York featured Hanks’ voice.

Hanks received the Space Foundation’s Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award in 2006 for his work promoting space initiatives.

Hanks was the first actor to be inducted into the United States Army Rangers Hall of Fame in June 2006 for his realistic depiction of a captain in Saving Private Ryan. He was unable to attend the event. In addition to Saving Private Ryan, Hanks was the national spokesperson for the World War II Memorial Campaign, the honorary chairperson of the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign, and the writer and producer of Band of Brothers. Hanks inducted The Dave Clark Five at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008.

Hanks collects and uses manual typewriters daily. Hanks created Hanx Writer, a free iOS software that emulated a typewriter, in August 2014; it topped the software Store within days.

Hanks and his wife gave their blood antibodies for viral study after catching and recovering with COVID-19 early in the epidemic.

CBS News reported on March 24, 2022, that Hanks, an ordained clergyman, conducted a Pittsburgh wedding.

Legacy

Hanks is sometimes called “America’s Dad” and likened to James Stewart. While performing in Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy on Broadway in 2013, 300 admirers waited to see him after every performance. This Broadway production has the most eager fans afterward.

Hanks is the fifth-highest North American box office star, earning nearly $4.9 billion, or $100.8 million per picture. Films of his have made $9.96 billion worldwide.

In 2003, Channel 4 ranked Hanks number 3 on their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars and number 22 on VH1’s “200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time.”  In 2000, 2002, and 2003, Forbes named him one of the world’s ten most powerful celebrities.

On BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on May 8, 2016, Hanks picked Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra by the Vienna Philharmonic, William Manchester’s A World Lit Only by Fire, and a Hermes 3000 typewriter and paper as his favourite songs, books, and luxury items.

Hanks was interviewed five times by Terry Gross on Fresh Air in Philadelphia on WHYY-FM. Two episodes covered his starring role in skipper Phillips, a film about a Somali pirate-hauled ship’s skipper. Hanks executive produced the 12-episode miniseries From Earth to the Moon, which was nominated for 17 Emmys. The last interview part features Hanks’ acting stories.