Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, also known as Tom Hanks, is an actor, writer, director, and producer born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California. The Hanks family line immigrated to America from England in 1653 and has settled across the United States over the centuries. Notably, Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, is a descendant of the same family line as Tom Hanks — making him Abraham Lincoln’s third cousin four times removed.
Hanks’s father, Amos Mefford Hanks, was working in Berkeley when he met his first wife, Janet Frager. They had four children, including Tom Hanks, who is the second youngest. After they divorced, Hanks and two of his siblings lived with their father while he worked at the Mapes Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. The hotel housed film stars such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Clark Gable while The Misfits was being filmed.
Hanks’s father remarried soon after his divorce from Janet Frager, giving him five new brothers and sisters. Before the end of this second marriage, Hanks’s father moved the family to Pleasant Hill, California with this new woman. Hanks’s mother lived in Red Bluff, California at the time, and he and two of his siblings would meet at a bus stop for visits with her.
Hanks was constantly moving around — about once every six months — until Hanks’s father and Wong eventually married. He moved Hanks, his two siblings, and Frances Wong to Oakland, California. Shortly thereafter, Hanks attended Skyline High School in Oakland.
Hanks’s acting career began through membership in the Skyline High School drama club. His performances included The Night of the Iguana, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and South Pacific. Fellow actor, classmate, and friend John Gilkerson and their drama teacher, Rawley Farnsworth, saw great potential in Hanks’s acting.
During his 1994 Academy Award acceptance speech for his role in Philadelphia, Hanks mentioned Farnsworth and Gilkerson as inspirations for his role in the film. Gilkerson had contracted HIV and died in 1989. In 2002, Hanks reunited with Farnsworth to renovate the theater at Skyline High School, which was rededicated and officially renamed the Rawley T. Farnsworth Theater.
After high school, Hanks attended Chabot College in Hayward and signed up for a Drama-in-Performance class. He was encouraged by Gilkerson to keep acting. In 1975, Hanks auditioned and received the lead male role of George Gibbs in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, receiving great performance reviews in The Chabot Spectator. At this time, Hanks was learning and coming into his own acting personality.
Hanks gained stamina as an actor learning about drama as a college student at Sacramento State University. He took many technical classes, including set design. When he auditioned and won the role of Yasha in guest director Vincent Dowling’s production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Sacramento Civic Repertory Theatre, he was also accepted by Dowling into the 1977 summer season of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival near Cleveland, Ohio.
As an intern for the Shakespeare Festival, Hanks played multiple smaller roles. Hanks auditioned for The Taming of the Shrew under director Dan Sullivan. He was cast as Grumio. He also won the Cleveland Critic’s Circle Award for Best Actor in 1978 for his role of Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. He left for the New York theater scene thereafter.
Hanks began his film career with a small role in He Knows You’re Alone (1980), which was followed by a made-for-television movie called Mazes and Monsters (1982) about a group of college students deeply involved with a game similar to Dungeons and Dragons. Hanks was also cast in the TV series Bosom Buddies (1980-82). Good reviews among TV critics propelled Hanks into several more television acts on shows, such as The Love Boat (1980), Taxi (1982), Happy Days (1982), Family Ties (1983-84), and Saturday Night Live (1985).
After starring in the mildly successful film Splash (1984), Hanks hit it big time playing a boy who magically becomes a grown man in the film Big (1988). Directed by Penny Marshall, Big topped the US box office at $114.97 million (“Big”). Hanks received his first Academy Award nomination for this performance.
Five years later, Hanks starred in the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle (1993). The 1990s were productive years for Hanks’s career. After he won the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia (1993), Hanks went on to win more awards for Forrest Gump, including the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor again. Winning these awards two years in a row propelled his career forward: Hanks starred in Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), You’ve Got Mail (1998), and The Green Mile (1999) — all box-office hits.
Hanks’s following two films were successful thrillers: he plays an FBI agent in pursuit of a young conman in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and a murder suspect racing to discover the mysteries of the Vatican in The Da Vinci Code (2006). Catch Me If You Can made $164.6 million at the US box office (“Catch Me If You Can”), while The Da Vinci Code earned another $217.5 million (“The Da Vinci Code”). Captain Phillips (2013) grossed $218.8 million worldwide (“Captain Phillips”), continuing the steady increase of Hanks’s acting fame. Captain Phillips is the true story of the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean by Somali pirates. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards.
Hanks’s acting ability enables him to play a wide range of characters in his movies, including characters who have had a political impact on the American lifestyle. For example, The Post (2017) focuses on the First Amendment’s protection of the freedom of the press. Reporting on the Pentagon Papers with The Washington Post, Tom Hanks and co-star Meryl Streep become an unlikely pair focused on uncovering decades-long government cover-ups. Directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, The Post earned $180.4 million globally (“The Post”).
Today, Hanks is one of the highest paid actors in North America with his films having grossed over $4.5 billion in the US and Canada and over $9 billion in the the world (“Tom Hanks”).
Much of Hanks’s acting career has been alongside his work as a director and producer. In 1996, Hanks debuted as a screenwriter and director of That Thing You Do! He co-produced and performed the lead in another box office-topping film, Cast Away (2000), the story of a man lost at sea who survives on a deserted island. Hanks went on to produce many films, such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), Magnificent Desolation (2005), and Evan Almighty (2007).
Hanks is also a published author. His texts include Uncommon Type: Some Stories (2017) and Brain pills (2018).
Haunts:
- Skyline High School, 12250 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619.
~ by Camille Brown ~
External Links:
“Big.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl692553217/weekend/.
“Captain Phillips.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1883801089/.
“Catch Me If You Can.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0264464/?ref_=bo_se_r_1.
“The Da Vinci Code.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0382625/?ref_=bo_se_r_1.
“The Post.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt6294822/?ref_=bo_se_r_1.
“Tom Hanks.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/name/nm0000158/.
Tom Hanks’s father, Amos Mefford Hanks
https://s1.zetaboards.com/anthroscape/topic/5879481/1/
Tom Hanks’s mother, Janet Frager
https://cdnph.upi.com/sv/para/ss/i/2821468421273/2016/7/1/14684229538925/Tom-Hanks-mourns-moms-death-she-was-the-difference-in-many-lives.jpg
Tom Hanks and Rawley Farnsworth in the rededication of the renovated Skyline theater
https://www.ousd.org/site/default.aspx?pageid=10849
Tom Hanks in The Two Gentlemen of Verona
https://blog.ulib.csuohio.edu/index.php?category=clevelandmemory
Bosom Buddies starring Tom Hanks
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/14/tom-hanks-blooper_n_3755267.html
Poster for the film Big starring Tom Hanks
https://www.hookedupon.com/tom-hanks-movies-to-watch/
Poster for the film Philadelphia starring Tom Hanks
https://www.hookedupon.com/tom-hanks-movies-to-watch/
Tom Hanks celebrating an Oscar
https://richglare.com/tom-hanks-net-worth-money/
Poster for the film Saving Private Ryan starring Tom Hanks
https://www.hookedupon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Tom-Hanks-Movies-Saving-Private-Ryan.jpg
Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan
https://static/.businessinsider.com/image/57d06d1509d2931a008b681a-1190-625/the-10-best-tom-hanks-movies-ever-ranked.jpg
https://www.movieinsider.com/m14872/the-post
Actor, writer, director, and producer Tom Hanks
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/tom-hanks-doesnt-watch-his-old-movies-who-does-that_n_4036139.html
