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Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is a two-time Academy Award-winning
American film actor, Emmy-winning director, voice-over artist and movie producer
who starred in family-friendly and screwball comedies before achieving notable
success as a dramatic actor in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. As of September 24,
2006, Hanks is the highest-grossing lead actor of all time, with a combined gross
of over USD$3.3 billion and a worldwide gross of nearly $6 billion.
Hanks followed Philadelphia with the 1994 summer hit Forrest Gump.
Hanks explained what appealed to him about the script: "When I read the script for
Gump, I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can
go to and feel ... some hope for their lot and their position in life... I got that
from the movies a hundred million times when I was a kid. I still do."
Hanks won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Forrest Gump,
becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning
back-to-back Best Actor Oscars. (Spencer Tracy was the first, winning in
1937-38.)
Hanks’ next project reunited him with Ron Howard in the movie Apollo 13, in which
he played astronaut and commander James Lovell. Critics generally applauded the
film and the performances of the entire cast, which included actors Kevin Bacon,
Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned
nine nominations for an Academy Award in 1996, winning two.
Hanks turned to directing and producing with his next movie "That Thing You Do!",
about a 1960's pop group. Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman went on to create
Playtone, a record and film production company named for the record company in the
film.
Hanks executive produced, co-wrote and co-directed the HBO docudrama From the Earth
to the Moon. The twelve-part series chronicles the space program from its
inception, through the familiar flights of Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell, to the
personal feelings surrounding the reality of moon landings. The Emmy Award-winning
$68 million project is one of the most expensive ventures taken for television.
Hanks' next project was no less expensive. For Saving Private Ryan he teamed up
with Steven Spielberg to make a film about D-Day, the landing at Omaha Beach, and a
quest through war-torn France to bring back a soldier who has a ticket home. It
earned the praise and respect of the film community, critics, and the general
public; it was labeled one of the finest war films ever made, earning Spielberg his
second Academy Award for direction and Hanks a Best Actor nomination. Later in
1998, Hanks reteamed with his Sleepless in Seattle co-star Meg Ryan for another
romantic comedy, You've Got Mail, a remake of 1940's The Shop Around the Corner,
which starred Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
In 1999, Hanks starred in an adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Green Mile. The
following year he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and an Academy nomination for
his portrayal of a shipwrecked FedEx systems analyst in Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away.
In 2001, Hanks helped direct and produce the acclaimed HBO mini-series Band of
Brothers. He also appeared in the September 11 television special America: A
Tribute to Heroes and the documentary Rescued From the Closet.
Next he teamed up with American Beauty director Sam Mendes for the adaptation of
Max Allan Collins' and Richard Piers Rayner's graphic novel Road to Perdition, in
which he played an anti-hero role as a hitman on the run with his son. That same
year, Hanks collaborated with director Spielberg again, starring opposite Leonardo
DiCaprio in the hit crime comedy Catch Me if You Can, based on the true story of
Frank Abagnale, Jr.
In 2002, he and wife Rita Wilson produced the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Hanks was subsequently absent from the screen until 2004, when he appeared in three
films: The Coen Brothers' The Ladykillers, another Spielberg helmed film, The
Terminal, and The Polar Express, a family film from Robert Zemeckis. In a USA
Weekend interview, Hanks talked about how he chooses projects: "[Since] A League of
Their Own, it can't be just another movie for me. It has to get me going
somehow.... There has to be some all-encompassing desire or feeling about wanting
to do that particular movie. I'd like to assume that I'm willing to go down any
avenue in order to do it right."
He became the youngest ever recipient of the American Film Institute's Life
Achievement Award on June 12, 2002. In August 2005 Hanks was voted in as
vice-president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Hanks also starred in the highly anticipated film The Da Vinci Code, based on the
bestselling novel by Dan Brown. The film was released May 19, 2006 in the US and
grossed over USD$750 million worldwide. In Ken Burns' 2007 documentary "The War",
Hanks did voice work, reading excerpts from WWII-era columns by Al McIntosh. In a
play on the expression "art imitating life", Hanks will play an onscreen dad to a
young man (Colin Hanks) who chooses to follow in the footsteps of a fading magician
(John Malkovich) in The Great Buck Howard. Hanks' character is less than thrilled
about his son's career decision. In 2006, Hanks topped a 1,500-strong list of 'most
trusted celebrities' compiled by Forbes magazine.
A film adaptation of Angels and Demons, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, has been
announced, and on April 11, 2007 it was revealed that Hanks would reprise again his
role as Robert Langdon and that he will reportedly receive the highest salary ever
for an actor.
Hanks was married to Samantha Lewes from 1978 to 1987. The couple had two children,
son Colin Hanks (now an actor in his own right) and daughter Elizabeth. In 1988
Hanks married actress Rita Wilson; raised in several different Christian
denominations, Hanks converted to Orthodox Christianity when marrying Wilson.[12]
The two first met on the set of Hank’s television show Bosom Buddies but later
developed a romantic interest while working on the film Volunteers. They have two
sons, Chester and Truman.
Hanks believes that he is related to James Hanks, possibly the father of Nancy
Hanks, mother of United States president Abraham Lincoln. A map of his family tree
showing the purported connection can be found in the External links section.
Hanks has stated that his favorite actor is James Stewart, someone with whose
talents his are often compared. He has said his favorite film is 2001: A Space
Odyssey (1968). In interviews he has said that he has seen it around thirteen times
in theaters and owns the VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD releases of the film.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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