He is the actor audiences trust to be decent, funny and brave — sometimes all at once. Tom Hanks became America’s everyman by never acting like a star.
Tom Hanks was born in Concord, California, on 9 July 1956. He grew up in the Bay Area, discovered theatre at school, and worked in summer stock and regional theatre before moving to television. His early break came in the sitcom Bosom Buddies, which began in 1980, in which he played a man who dresses as a woman to live in an affordable women’s hotel.
Film stardom followed with Splash in 1984, and he became a leading man of comedy with Big in 1988, in which he plays a boy who wakes up in a man’s body. The 1990s made him a defining screen presence: A League of Their Own in 1992, Sleepless in Seattle in 1993, Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994, followed by Apollo 13 in 1995, Toy Story in 1995 as the voice of Woody, and Saving Private Ryan in 1998.
What connects those roles is not a type, but a quality: Hanks plays ordinary people in extraordinary situations with warmth, humour and moral seriousness. Whether he is a soldier, an astronaut, a castaway in Cast Away in 2000, or a toy cowboy, he makes decency feel dramatic.
He remains one of the most beloved actors of his generation, not because he is larger than life, but because he so often plays the person we hope we would be.