What did Tom Hanks do in 1994 that no actor had done since 1938? There’s
more than meets the eye when it comes to “America’s dad.”
If there's one actor who can virtually
carry a movie, it's Tom Hanks. In 2000's Castaway, most of the movie features the main character,
Chuck, stranded on an island after a plane crash. Since Chuck is there for four years,
Hanks had to show his character losing weight and growing a beard.
Hanks lost 50 pounds as he morphed into the character and production halted for him.
Hanks also physically changed for Philadelphia. Since his character was battling AIDS,
Hank's body needed to show the disease taking its toll. This time, the loss
came after having to gain weight for his role as Jimmy, the coach in A League of Their Own.
"There's no crying in baseball."
And it's not just his physical appearance that makes him seem
so different in each of his roles. Steven Spielberg — a frequent collaborator with
Hanks — spoke about how the actor embodies each part he takes. Spielberg told Vulture,
"Well, for me, everything that Tom does is a surprise to me because I don't recognize
him. I know Tom so well, but I don't recognize the character he plays."
If his acting mastery
wasn't enough to secure him a spot in the elite club of Hollywood royalty, Tom Hanks also has
some impressive writing credits to his name. That Thing You Do! was not only his directorial debut,
he also wrote the screenplay for the fun and inspiring movie. According to Deadline,
Hanks wrote the script during a global press tour for Forrest Gump. Hanks shared with the outlet,
"I had talked about myself for a year straight so
I started writing to maintain some sort of creative sanity."
Alongside actor Nia Vardalos, Hanks also wrote Larry Crowne,
a movie he starred in as well. The film is about a man who loses his job after
his company downsizes. The actor told the Los Angeles Daily News:
"I wanted to examine the theme of reinvention, and not reinvention by the way of fate dictating
it but by your own proactive place in how you move onto the next chapter of your life."
His most recent writing endeavor was the World War II movie, Greyhound, which he starred in,
too. Hanks adapted the screenplay from C.S. Forester's 1955 novel, The Good Shepherd. When
he spoke to Today about the film, which follows a merchant ship under attack from the Germans,
he said people often asked him why this film, this era. Hanks answered:
"Because I keep going back to examine the
human condition of how does one deal with a pressure that never lets up."
Given Tom Hanks' love for creative writing, it makes sense one of his hobbies is collecting
typewriters. In October 2017, Hanks spoke to NPR's David Greene about how his love of
the typewriter inspired his book, Uncommon Type. The book, which was released in 2017,
features 17 short stories written by Hanks, some more obviously featuring a typewriter,
while others are more subtle. As Hanks told PBS NewsHour,
"Yeah, there're little Easter eggs we scattered throughout."]
Hanks also mentioned he collects typewriters the same way others would
collect vintage guitars, telling PBS NewsHour,
"There's a beauty, an aesthetic quality to them that I just admire them."
But more importantly to Hanks, he loves the perfection of the
typewriter's function. Hanks explained:
"They are perfect devices.
They do one thing. And only one thing. You can't make a phone call on a typewriter."
He went on to elaborate the permanence of what a typewriter can create,
a physical representation of what is on one's mind. He compared it to something
chiseled in stone. As far as the book goes? Hanks admitted at least one of the stories,
A Special Weekend, was based on his own life experiences and observations.
Who playing Captain Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, Tom Hanks famously proclaimed,
"Houston, we have a problem."
It wouldn't be the only time the Oscar winner played a captain. In fact, Hanks has played
the role of a captain at least six times, as of 2022. In 1998's war film Saving Private Ryan,
Hanks played Captain Miller, who bravely sacrificed himself to help save his men.
His next opportunity to slide into the captain's chair came in 2013 as Captain
Phillips in the movie of the same name. Captain Phillips is the real-life story
of a merchant mariner whose vessel was taken over by Somali pirates who held him hostage.
"I'm the captain now."
In 2016, Hanks would take on the role of another real-life captain:
Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. Directed by Clint Eastwood, Sully covers the harrowing
events of Captain Sullenberger making an emergency landing on the Hudson river and
the traumatic after-effects it had on the pilot. Hanks' latest captain roles both came in 2020,
as Captain Kraus in Greyhound and Captain Kidd in News of the World.
When Tom Hanks was cast in a 1982
guest role on the popular television series Happy Days, he probably didn't foresee the
fortuitous encounter that would launch his career to next-level success with the film,
Splash. In fact, even visionary icon Ron Howard, who starred in Happy Days and directed the film,
didn't have much faith in Hanks landing the lead role in the movie.
Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, who wrote Splash, a 1984 film about a man who meets a mermaid,
were also consulting on Happy Days at the time Hanks was filming his guest role. Though Hanks
was playing a bully, they thought he'd be great as the "every man" character Allen
Bauer for their new movie. Howard, who was directing the film, recalled to Us Weekly,
"Hanks had no chance in hell."
Howard felt the studio execs wouldn't give him the green light. Mandel had
a different reaction, however, telling USA Today,
"Tom came in and blew the doors off the joint. He was tremendously funny."
Of course, Splash was a hit, and the rest, as they say, is history. Hanks was propelled
onto a string of leading roles, like Big, Turner & Hooch, and Joe Versus the Volcano,
in which he plays an unassuming man put in a seemingly impossible situation.
If you're a sports fan, you know how rare winning back-to-back championships are. It's even rarer to
win back-to-back Oscars, and if we're talking the Academy Award for Best Actor? There's only been
two ever! Well, actually four in the lead acting categories: two women and two men. But given
they're still separate categories, let's focus on Best Actor. The first male actor to earn the honor
was Spencer Tracy. He won for Captains Courageous in 1938 and Boys Town in 1939. Variety noted:
"Tracy was best known for playing fundamentally
decent characters whose innate wisdom won the day in spite of outward flaws."
Sound familiar? Given that over five decades had passed since Tracy's consecutive wins,
it was an amazing accomplishment for Hanks when he won Best Actor twice in a row:
For 1993's Philadelphia and 1994's Forrest Gump. In 1999 and 2001, he received Best
Actor Oscar nominations for Saving Private Ryan and Castaway, respectively, but then he
would see an almost 20-year dry spell in which he wasn't nominated by the Academy for his acting.
A 2019 Indiewire article examined the situation and uncovered several reasons
for the gap. One was his consecutive wins, and that the bar became higher
after them. Insiders also believed Hanks respected the honor of his wins and simply
didn't campaign aggressively for his other nominations in the years that followed.
What do Bill Gates and Melinda
French Gates, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Tom Hanks have in common? They're all
recipients of the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Considered the highest civilian award,
the Medal of Freedom was established in 1945 by Harry S. Truman and was intended
to honor actions by civilians during World War II. In 1963, President John
F. Kennedy established the honor as we know it today. According to the White House Archives,
"[The Presidential Medal of Freedom is] presented to individuals who have made especially
meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States,
to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."
Tom Hanks has certainly contributed to the world's cultural endeavors,
providing laughter, inspiration, and insight through his portrayal of both
fictional and real people. In the official announcement, President Barack Obama said:
"The Presidential Medal of Freedom is not just our nation's highest civilian
honor — it's a tribute to the idea that all of us, no matter where we come from,
have the opportunity to change this country for the better."
Per the announcement, Hanks was selected because of the "indelible mark" he's
left on American film and his work as an advocate. The announcement went on to say:
"Hanks has advocated for social and environmental justice, and for our veterans and their families."
After receiving his medal, Hanks stated,
"This is a great, incredible moment for all the Hanks family."
There might be another reason to love Tom Hanks
in movies and on TV, and it has nothing to do with acting. Hanks typically plays someone likable, an
unlikely hero maybe, an everyday Joe who saves the day in some sense. And it's very possible those
qualities exist in Hanks the man, so they aren't very difficult for Hanks to portray on screen.
With his career-long reputation for being a nice guy, one would be hard pressed to find
bad publicity about the man. On the contrary, there are countless stories of kind things Hanks
has done for his fans and others. For example, The New York Times mentioned an instance when
the shoot for Angels & Demons caused a wedding to be delayed because the bride couldn't get
to the chapel. As such, Hanks stopped filming and escorted her and her father to the altar.
Time detailed more of these acts, including the time Hanks got a mailed request for a
headshot and replied with a typewritten note and a '90s Polaroid of himself. In 2015,
Hanks found a Fordham University student's ID in the park and posted on Twitter about it, writing,
"Lauren! I found your Student ID in the park. If you still
need it my office will get to you. Hanx."