Hanks was born in Concord, California,[11] on July 9, 1956,[12] to hospital worker Janet Marylyn (néeFrager) and itinerant[13][14] cook Amos "Bud"[15][16] Hanks. His mother was from a Portuguese family; their surname was originally "Fraga".[17] His father had English ancestry,[18] and through his line, Hanks is a distant cousin of President Abraham Lincoln[19][20][21][22][23] and children's host Fred Rogers (whom many years later he would portray in a film role).[24][25] His parents divorced in 1960.
One journalist characterized Hanks' teenage self as being a "Bible-toting evangelical" for several years.[31] In school, he was unpopular with students and teachers alike, later telling Rolling Stone magazine, "I was a geek, a spaz. I was horribly, painfully, terribly shy. At the same time, I was the guy who'd yell out funny captions during filmstrips. But I didn't get into trouble. I was always a real good kid and pretty responsible."[32] Hanks acted in school plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California.[33]
Having grown up in the Bay Area, Hanks says that some of his first movie memories were seeing movies in the Alameda Theatre.[34] Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California,[35] and transferred to California State University, Sacramento after two years.[36][37] During a 2001 interview with sportscaster Bob Costas, Hanks was asked whether he would rather have an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy. He replied that he would rather win a Heisman by playing halfback for the California Golden Bears.[38] He told New York magazine in 1986, "Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant. I spent a lot of time going to plays. I wouldn't take dates with me. I'd just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, and then get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Ibsen, and all that."[39]
During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.[15] At Dowling's suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival. His internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, and stage management, prompting Hanks to drop out of college. During the same time, Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the few times he played a villain.[40] In 2010, Time magazine named Hanks one of the "Top 10 College Dropouts".[41]
In 1979, Hanks moved to New York City, where he made his film debut in the low-budget slasher filmHe Knows You're Alone (1980)[15][42] and landed a starring role in the television movie Mazes and Monsters (1982).[43] Early that year, he was cast as the lead, Callimaco, in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Mandrake, directed by Daniel Southern.[44] The following year, Hanks landed one of the lead roles, that of character Kip Wilson, on the ABC television pilot of Bosom Buddies. He and Peter Scolari played a pair of young advertising men forced to dress as women so they could live in an inexpensive all-female hotel.[15] Hanks had previously partnered with Scolari on the 1970s game show Make Me Laugh. After landing the role, Hanks moved to Los Angeles. Bosom Buddies ran for two seasons, and, although the ratings were never strong, television critics gave the program high marks. "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 be a movie star in two years."[45]
Hanks made a guest appearance on a 1982 episode of Happy Days ("A Case of Revenge", in which he played a disgruntled former classmate of Fonzie) where he met writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel who were writing the film Splash (1984), a romantic comedy fantasy about a mermaid who falls in love with a human, to be directed by former Happy Days star Ron Howard. Ganz and Mandel suggested Howard consider Hanks for the film.[46][47][48] At first, Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character's wisecracking brother, a role that eventually went to John Candy. Instead, Hanks landed the lead role in Splash, which went on to become a surprise box office hit, grossing more than US$69million.[49] He had a sizable hit with the sex comedy Bachelor Party, also in 1984.[50] In 1983–84, Hanks made three guest appearances on Family Ties as Elyse Keaton's alcoholic brother Ned Donnelly.[51][52]
With Nothing in Common (1986)—a story of a young man alienated from his father (Jackie Gleason)—Hanks began to extend himself from comedic roles to dramatic. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Hanks commented on his experience: "It changed my desires about working in movies. Part of it was the nature of the material, what we were trying to say. But besides that, it focused on people's relationships. The story was about a guy and his father, unlike, say, The Money Pit, where the story is really about a guy and his house."[53] In 1987, he had signed an agreement with The Walt Disney Studios where he had starred to a talent pool in an acting/producing pact.[54] After a few more flops and a moderate success with the comedy Dragnet (1987), Hanks' stature in the film industry rose.
The broad success of the fantasy comedy Big (1988) established Hanks as a major Hollywood talent, both as a box office draw and within the industry as an actor.[50][15][55] For his performance in the film, Hanks earned his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.[56]Big was followed later that year by Punchline, in which he and Sally Field co-starred as struggling comedians. Hanks then suffered a run of box-office underperformers: The 'Burbs (1989), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).[15] In the last, he portrayed a greedy Wall Street figure who gets enmeshed in a hit-and-run accident. Turner & Hooch (1989) was Hanks' only financially successful film of the period.
1990–1999: Leading man and acclaim
Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball legend turned manager in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992).[15] Hanks has said that his acting in earlier roles had not not great, but that he later improved. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hanks called attention to what he called his "modern era of moviemaking... because enough self-discovery has gone on... My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top". This "modern era" began in 1993 for Hanks, first with Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle and then with Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia.
Sleepless in Seattle is a romantic comedy about a widower who finds true love over the radio airwaves. Hanks co-starred with Meg Ryan.[57]Richard Schickel of TIME called his performance "charming", and most critics agreed that Hanks' portrayal ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.[58] In Philadelphia, he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination.[15] Hanks lost 35 pounds (16kg) and thinned his hair in order to appear sickly for the role. In a review for People, Leah Rozen stated, "Above all, credit for Philadelphia's success belongs to Hanks, who makes sure that he plays a character, not a saint. He is flat-out terrific, giving a deeply felt, carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia.[15][59] During his acceptance speech, he revealed that two people with whom he was close, his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and his former classmate John Gilkerson, were gay.[60]
Hanks followed Philadelphia with Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump (1994), playing the title character, a man with an IQ of 75 who happens to find himself involved with some of the major events in recent American history. It grossed a worldwide total of over $600million.[61] Hanks remarked, "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 consecutive Best Actor Oscars.[62] (Spencer Tracy was the first, winning in 1937 and ‘38 for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. Hanks and Tracy were the same age at the time they received their Academy Awards: 37 years old when they won their first and 38 when they won their second.)[63][64]
Hanks then executive produced, co-wrote and co-directed the HBO docudrama From the Earth to the Moon (1998). The 12-part series chronicled 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 project was, at $68million (equivalent to $127million in 2023), one of the most expensive ventures undertaken for television.[70][71]
Hanks reunited with Zemeckis for Cast Away (2000), playing a marooned FedEx systems analyst. Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times 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."[76] Hanks co-directed and produced the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (2001).[77] He also appeared in the September 11 television special America: A Tribute to Heroes and the documentary Rescued From the Closet.[78] In 2002, he teamed up with Sam Mendes for Road to Perdition, an adaptation of the adaptation of Max Allan Collins's and Richard Piers Rayner's comics, in which he played an anti-hero role as a hitman on the run with his son. Hanks reunited with Spielberg, starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can (2002), based on the true story of conman Frank Abagnale, Jr. Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002).[79][80] In August 2007, Hanks, along with co-producers Wilson and Gary Goetzman and writer and star Nia Vardalos, initiated a legal action against the production company Gold Circle Films for their share of profits from the movie.[81][82][83] At the age of 45, Hanks became the youngest-ever recipient of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award on June 12, 2002.[84][85]
Hanks at Post-Emmys Party, September 2008
In 2004, he appeared in three films: The Coen brothers' The Ladykillers, Spielberg's The Terminal and Zemeckis's The Polar Express, a family film for which Hanks played multiple motion capture roles. In a USA Weekend interview, Hanks discussed 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". In August 2005, Hanks was voted in as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[86] Hanks next starred in The Da Vinci Code (2006), which grossed over US$750million worldwide.[87] In 2006, Hanks topped a 1,500-strong list of "most trusted celebrities" compiled by Forbes magazine.[88] He produced the animated children's movie The Ant Bully and Starter for Ten, a comedy about working-class students attempting to win on University Challenge.[89]
Hanks did voice work for Ken Burns's documentary The War (2007), reading excerpts from World War II-era columns by Al McIntosh. Hanks voiced himself in The Simpsons Movie (2007), in which he appeared in an announcement claiming that the U.S. government has lost its credibility and is hence buying some of his. He also made an appearance in the credits, expressing a desire to be left alone when he is out in public. He starred in Mike Nichols's Charlie Wilson's War (2007) as Democratic Texas Congressman Charles Wilson. In the comedy-drama film The Great Buck Howard (2008), Hanks played the on-screen father of a young man (played by Hanks' real-life son Colin) who chooses to work as road manager for a fading mentalist (John Malkovich). His character was less than thrilled about his son's career decision.[90] In the same year, he executive produced the musical comedyMamma Mia! and the miniseries John Adams.[91][92]
In 2014, Hanks' short story "Alan Bean Plus Four" was published in The New Yorker.[111] Revolving around four friends who make a voyage to the moon, the short story is titled after the Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean. Slate magazine's Katy Waldman found his first published short story "mediocre", writing that "Hanks' shopworn ideas about technology might have yet sung if they hadn't been wrapped in too-clever lit mag-ese".[112] In an interview with The New Yorker, Hanks said he has always been fascinated by space. He told the magazine that he built plastic models of rockets when he was a child and watched live broadcasts of space missions back in the 1960s.[113]
On April 11, 2020, Hanks made his first television appearance since his COVID-19 diagnosis by hosting Saturday Night Live.[125] Hanks delivered an opening monolog via his house but did not appear in any of the sketches. This is the first episode of SNL to debut after the show's hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it features different sketches filmed remotely from the cast members' homes. This is also a first in SNL history, for the show to be made up entirely of prerecorded content before airing, and the second to not be filmed at Studio 8H. Hanks had two films released in 2020. Hanks starred in Greyhound, a war film which he also wrote the screenplay for.[126][127] Initially set to be theatrically released in June 2020 by Sony Pictures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, distribution rights to the film were bought by Apple TV+, where it was released in July 2020.[128] He reunited with Paul Greengrass for the WesternNews of the World.[129][130] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised Hanks' performance: "Hanks has built a career out of playing thoroughly decent men, so his casting here is entirely to type. But the soulfulness and sorrow, the innate compassion that ripple through his characterization make this an enormously pleasurable performance to watch, with new depths of both kindness and regret that keep revealing themselves."[131]
In 2021, Hanks starred in the science fiction drama Finch, directed by Miguel Sapochnik,[132][133][134] and released by Apple TV+.[135] On March 2, 2022, Connor Ratliff appeared as a guest on Late Night With Seth Meyers,[136] where he revealed that Hanks would at last be interviewed for the season three finale of Ratliff's podcast Dead Eyes. The conversation between Hanks and Ratliff took place 22 years after Ratliff was about to begin filming an episode of Band of Brothers, when he was subsequently fired, allegedly because Hanks believed Ratliff had "dead eyes". The 90 minute interview was hailed as a momentous achievement in podcasting, a "rare show that gives you a perfect conclusion",[137] "surprisingly funny and empathetic",[137] and an event Paul Scheer called "thrilling".[138]
Hanks at the 80th D-Day Ceremony in Normandy, France in 2024
HBO confirmed in January 2013 that it was developing a third World War II miniseries based on the book Masters of the Air by Donald L. Miller with Hanks and Spielberg, to follow Band of Brothers and The Pacific.[148]NME reported in March 2017 that production was progressing under the working title The Mighty Eighth.[149] On October 11, 2019, it was announced that the series would keep the title from the book and that the miniseries would stream on Apple TV+ due to budget constraints at HBO. Masters of the Air was expected to cost $200 million with a duration of at least eight hours.[150] The series premiered on January 26, 2024. Hanks is also appearing in In the Garden of Beasts, an adaptation of the 2011 non fiction book from director Joe Wright about American diplomat William Dodd.[151][152] In February 2022, it was announced that Hanks will star in the feature adaptation of Here, a graphic novel by Richard McGuire, directed by Robert Zemeckis.[153]
Hanks is often compared to James Stewart,[216] and has also frequently been referred to as "America's Dad".[217] In 2013, when he was starring in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy on Broadway, he had crowds of 300 fans waiting for a glimpse of him after every performance. This is the highest number of expectant fans post-show of any Broadway performance.[218]
Hanks is ranked as the fifth-highest all-time box office star in North America, with a total gross of over $4.9billion at the North American box office, an average of $100.8million per film.[219] Worldwide, his films have grossed over $9.96billion.[220] Asteroid 12818 Tomhanks is named after him.[221]
Hanks was interviewed five times on WHYY-FM by Terry Gross on the radio show Fresh Air in Philadelphia. Topics included two segments on his lead role in Captain Phillips, a movie about the real life story of a ship's captain hijacked by Somali pirates. Two interviews are about the 12 part miniseries From Earth to the Moon, for which Hanks was executive producer and which was nominated for 17 Emmy Awards. The last interview segment comprises anecdotes shared by Hanks about his acting career.[227]
Roger Ebert wrote "of actors who are not 'bigger than life,' but somehow just like life—people who we feel we know and understand, and are comfortable with. We sense that these actors embody not our fantasies, but our lives. Watching them we feel congratulated, because we are watching ourselves. They reassure us that in our ordinariness we also have a kind of importance. The actors who can do that—Buster Keaton, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, and Tom Hanks, occupy a special category... The central triumph of Tom Hanks as a movie actor is that, most of the time, we believe he thinks a lot like us, and does more or less what we would do, but that he somehow does it on a larger or more ennobling scale. It is the James Stewart quality. But few actors can obtain it; with most, you see their egos peeking through, or you catch them trying too hard. The camera is a lie detector, and Hanks must be a fundamentally good person to play such roles—either that, or he is an even better actor than we think."[228]
Hanks married American actress Samantha Lewes (1952–2002) in 1978. They had one son, actor Colin (b. 1977),[229] and one daughter, Elizabeth (b. 1982).[50] Hanks and Lewes divorced in 1987.[50][230] Lewes died in 2002 at the age of 49 from bone cancer.[231] Hanks actively attends church. He said, "I must say that when I go to church—and I do go to church—I ponder the mystery. I meditate on the 'why?' of 'why people are as they are' and 'why bad things happen to good people,' and 'why good things happen to bad people'... The mystery is what I think is, almost, the grand unifying theory of all mankind."[31]
In 1981, Hanks met actress Rita Wilson on the set of TV comedy Bosom Buddies (1980–1982). They were reunited in 1985 on the set of Volunteers.[50] Wilson is of Greek and Bulgarian descent, and a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. Before marrying her, Hanks converted to her faith.[232][233] Hanks and Wilson married in 1988 and have two sons. Their older son, Chet, released a rap song in 2011 and had recurring roles in Empire and Shameless.[234][235] Their younger son, Truman, was born in 1995, and portrayed the younger version of his father's character in A Man Called Otto (2022).[236] Hanks lives with his family in Los Angeles, California,[237] and Ketchum, Idaho.[238]
In October 2013, on Late Show with David Letterman Hanks said he has type 2 diabetes. The CBS News medical contributor said significant weight fluctuations for various film roles such as A League of Their Own and Cast Away might have contributed to the diagnosis.[239] In a 2018 interview, Hanks further attributed his condition to a combination of genetics and lifestyle choices. He has since made lifestyle changes to manage his condition, such as maintaining a healthier diet and avoiding film roles that require drastic weight changes.[240]
Despite being a fan of the Oakland Athletics and the Raiders when they were based in Oakland, Hanks stated in April 2017 he would boycott the NFL for two years after the Raiders filed for relocation to Las Vegas.[241] Since 1984, Hanks has been a fan of the English Premier League club Aston Villa.[242]
On December 27, 2019, the President of Greece, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, signed an honorary naturalization order for Hanks and his family, citing their "exceptional services to Greece", thus making him and his immediate family Greek citizens.[215][1][245] Hanks, along with Wilson and their children, were conferred honorary citizenship for their role in bringing global attention and appealing for aid after a devastating wildfire that ripped through the seaside village of Mati, near Athens, in July 2018, which killed more than 100 people.[246][245]Greece's Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos said Hanks "showed real interest in the people who suffered from the fire in Mati and promoted this issue in the global media".[245] In July 2020, Hanks and Wilson were photographed with their Greek passports alongside the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife.[246][247]
Hanks was outspoken about his opposition to the 2008 Proposition8, an amendment to the California constitution that defined marriage as a union only between a man and a woman. Hanks and others raised over US$44million to campaign against the proposition.[251] While premiering a TV series in January 2009, Hanks called supporters of Proposition8 "un-American" and criticized LDS Church members, who were major proponents of the bill, for their views on marriage and role in supporting the bill.[252][253] About a week later, he apologized for the remark, saying that nothing is more American than voting one's conscience.[254]
A proponent of environmentalism, Hanks is an investor in electric vehicles and owns a Toyota RAV4 EV and the first production AC Propulsion eBox. He was a lessee of an EV1 before it was recalled, as chronicled in the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?[255] He was on the waiting list for an Aptera2 Series.[256] Hanks serves as campaign chair of the Hidden Heroes Campaign of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. The stated mission of the campaign is to inspire a national movement to more effectively support the military and veteran caregivers.[257][258]
In 2004, while touring the White House, Hanks learned that the press corps did not have a coffee pot, and shortly thereafter he donated an espresso machine. He again donated new machines in 2010 and 2017. His 2017 donation was accompanied by a note that read "To the White House Press Corps, Keep up the good fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Especially for the truth part."[259][260] He endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.[261]
In 2006, the Space Foundation awarded Hanks the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award,[265] given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs.[266]
In June 2006, Hanks was inducted as an honorary member of the United States Army Rangers Hall of Fame for his accurate portrayal of a captain in the movie Saving Private Ryan; Hanks, who was unable to attend the induction ceremony, was the first actor to receive such an honor. In addition to his role in Saving Private Ryan, Hanks was cited for serving as the national spokesperson for the World War II Memorial Campaign, for being the honorary chairperson of the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign, and for his role in writing and helping to produce the Emmy Award-winning miniseries, Band of Brothers.[267] On March 10, 2008, Hanks was on hand at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to induct The Dave Clark Five.[268]
Hanks is a collector of manual typewriters and uses them almost daily.[269][270] In August 2014, Hanks released Hanx Writer, an iOSapp meant to emulate the experience of using a typewriter; within days the free app reached number one on the App Store.[271][272] After contracting and recovering from a COVID-19 infection early in the pandemic, Hanks and his wife donated their blood antibodies for virus research.[273] Hanks is an ordained minister, and on March 24, 2022, CBS News reported that he had recently officiated a wedding in Pittsburgh.[274] In 2023, Hanks founded Hanx for the Troops, a coffee company that supports veterans and military families through a portion of its profits and various initiatives.[275]
Bibliography
Hanks wrote a collection of short stories inspired by his typewriter collection, Uncommon Type, which was published in 2017.[276][277]The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, his debut novel, was published in May 2023.[278]
Further reading
Gardner, David (1999), Tom Hanks: The Unauthorized Biography, London, ISBN978-1-85782-327-1
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is an American actor and producer. Regarded as a Hollywood icon, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards. His films have grossed over $12 billion worldwide, placing him among the highest-grossing actors of all time. One of Hollywood's most bankable stars, he is consistently one of the world's highest-paid actors.
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis. An adaptation of the 1986 novel by Winston Groom, the screenplay of the film is written by Eric Roth. It stars Tom Hanks in the title role, alongside Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field in lead roles. The film follows the life of an Alabama man named Forrest Gump (Hanks) and his experiences in the 20th-century United States.
William Bradley Pitt is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. One of the most influential celebrities, Pitt appeared on Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list from 2006 to 2008, and the Time 100 list in 2007.
William McChord Hurt was an American actor. He is widely known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.
Edward Allen Harris is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in Apollo 13 (1995), The Truman Show (1998), Pollock (2000), and The Hours (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award nominations.
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three British Academy Film Awards, and nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. His films have grossed over $11 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American filmmaker known for directing and producing a range of successful and influential movies, often blending cutting-edge visual effects with storytelling. He has received several accolades including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for five British Academy Film Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award.
Philadelphia is a 1993 American legal drama film directed and produced by Jonathan Demme, written by Ron Nyswaner, and starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. Filmed on location in its namesake city, it tells the story of attorney Andrew Beckett (Hanks) who comes to ask a personal injury attorney, Joe Miller (Washington), to help him sue his former employer, who fired him after discovering he was gay and that he had AIDS. The cast also features Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, Antonio Banderas, and Joanne Woodward.
Edward Thomas Hardy is an English actor. After studying acting at the Drama Centre London, Hardy made his film debut in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down in 2001. He had supporting roles in the films Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) and RocknRolla (2008), and went on to star in Bronson (2008), Warrior (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Lawless (2012), This Means War (2012), and Locke (2013). In 2015, he starred as "Mad" Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road and both Kray twins in Legend, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Revenant. Hardy appeared in three Christopher Nolan films: Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Dunkirk (2017). He has since starred as the title character in the film Venom (2018) and its two sequels.
Michael Fassbender is a German-Irish actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number nine on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Austin Robert Butler is an American actor. Butler began his career on television, first in roles on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, most notably on Zoey 101 (2007–2008), and later on teen dramas, including recurring parts on The CW's Life Unexpected (2010–2011) and Switched at Birth (2011–2012). He gained recognition for starring in The Carrie Diaries (2013–2014) and The Shannara Chronicles (2016–2017). Butler made his Broadway debut in the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh and portrayed Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
Thomas William Hiddleston is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with Thor in 2011 and including the Disney+ series Loki since 2021.
Luke George Evans is a Welsh actor and singer. He began his career on the stage, and performed in London's West End productions of Rent, Miss Saigon, and Piaf before making his film breakthrough in the Clash of the Titans 2010 remake. Following his debut, Evans was cast in the action and thriller films Immortals (2011), The Raven (2012), and the re-imagined The Three Musketeers (2011).
Thomas Stanley Holland is an English actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award and three Saturn Awards. He featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list of 2019. Some publications have called him one of the most popular actors of his generation.
Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor who began his career performing as a child on television. He appeared on the shows The New Lassie (1989) and Santa Barbara (1990) and also had long-running roles in the comedy-drama Parenthood (1990) and the sitcom Growing Pains (1991). DiCaprio played Tobias "Toby" Wolff opposite Robert De Niro in the biographical coming-of-age drama This Boy's Life in 1993. In the same year, he had a supporting role as a developmentally disabled boy Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, which earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. In 1995, DiCaprio played the leading roles of an American author Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. The following year he played Romeo Montague in the Baz Luhrmann-directed film Romeo + Juliet (1996). DiCaprio starred with Kate Winslet in the James Cameron-directed film Titanic (1997). The film became the highest grossing at the worldwide box-office, and made him famous globally. For his performance as Jack Dawson, he received the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance and his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
Big is a 1988 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall and stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, an adolescent boy whose wish to be "big" transforms him physically into an adult. The film also stars Elizabeth Perkins, David Moscow, John Heard, and Robert Loggia, and was written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg. It was produced by Gracie Films and distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Barry Keoghan is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Elvis is a 2022 epic biographical drama film co-produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. It chronicles the life of the American rock and roll singer and actor Elvis Presley under the management of Colonel Tom Parker. It stars Austin Butler and Tom Hanks as Presley and Parker, respectively, with Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Luke Bracey in supporting roles.
↑ "Honor: Portuguese American actor Tom Hanks awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom—Washington, DC". Portuguese American Journal. November 23, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2018. ...Tom Hanks was born in Contra Costa county, California, in 1956, of Portuguese, British, and Irish descent. His maternal ancestors were Portuguese pioneers in California with roots in the Azores. His mother Janet Marylyn Frager (Fraga) was a hospital worker...
↑ BBC program: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, January 2008
a "Famous alumni*: Actor Tom Hanks... *Includes former students who attended—but didn't graduate from—the university"—¶ 67.
↑ "Tom Hanks [interview]". Genesis. February 1987. Retrieved May 4, 2020. He attended Chabot Junior College in Hayward for two years, then spent a year at California State University in Sacramento, majoring in theater arts.
↑ Aquilina, Tyler (March 17, 2021). "Pinocchio: Erivo, Gordon-Levitt & More Join Disney's Live-Action Film". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 19, 2021. After an unusually long and bumpy road to the screen, production is finally underway on Disney's live-action remake of the animated classic Pinocchio.
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