Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker who has become one of the most recognisable and widely loved stars in Hollywood, with a career spanning comedy, drama, romance, war films and some of the biggest movies of the past four decades. Born Thomas Jeffrey Hanks on July 9, 1956, in Concord, California, Hanks began his screen career with small television and film roles before gaining wider attention in the sitcom Bosom Buddies. His movie breakthrough followed during the 1980s, when his natural comic ability made him a leading man in films including Splash, Bachelor Party, The Money Pit and Dragnet. One of the defining moments of his early career arrived with Big in 1988. Playing a young boy who suddenly finds himself trapped inside an adult body, Hanks demonstrated that he could combine comedy with genuine emotion and received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. During the 1990s, Hanks developed into one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He appeared opposite Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle before delivering an acclaimed performance in Philadelphia, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He won the award again the following year for Forrest Gump, becoming one of the relatively few performers to win consecutive Best Actor Oscars. Hanks continued an extraordinary run of films with Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile and Cast Away, while also becoming the voice of Woody in Pixar's Toy Story. Woody would become one of Hanks' most famous roles and a character he would return to across several sequels. His long-running collaboration with director Steven Spielberg has produced films including Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal and Bridge of Spies, while Hanks has also appeared in major productions such as Road to Perdition, The Da Vinci Code, Captain Phillips, Sully, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Elvis. Away from acting, Hanks has worked extensively as a producer, writer and director. His filmmaking interests have often turned to American history and major historical events, including his involvement in acclaimed television productions such as Band of Brothers and The Pacific. From the comedies that made him a star during the VHS era to some of Hollywood's most celebrated dramas, Tom Hanks has built a remarkably varied career while remaining one of cinema's most familiar leading men. Whether he's playing a stranded FedEx employee, a Second World War army captain, a man sitting on a bench telling his life story or a cowboy named Woody, few actors have created quite as many memorable movie characters.