Tom Hanks Newsletter
Sign-up to receive daily news on Tom Hanks by email.
Tom Hanks Community
Tom Hanks Filmography
Source:
Theiapolis
Tom Hanks Resources
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9 1956) is an American actor famous for playing notable roles in many popular and critically acclaimed movies. He is well known for his acting ability, and is able to play characters that range from the vulnerable Forrest Gump
, to the inspirational lead in Philadelphia
, to the never-say-die commander in Apollo 13. Hanks is generally known for his ability to imbue "nice-guy" roles with warmth, for example in the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle
, but is quite capable of taking the role of a mob hitman in Road to Perdition.
Hanks is currently one of the most sought-after leading men in Hollywood. His salary for two recent movies was USD$20 million each. His portrayal of the likeable lead in Forrest Gump earned him $70 million.
Born in Concord, California, Hanks later studied theatre at California State University, Sacramento. He couldn't get cast in a college play so he auditioned for community theater instead. He was invited by the director of that play to go to Cleveland, and it was there his acting career started.
Hanks is a member of the National Space Society and was the producer of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon about the Apollo program to send astronauts to the moon.
Hanks has been married to actress
Rita Wilson since 1988. They met while working on the movie Volunteers (1985). They have two children together. Hanks was married previously to Samantha Lewes from 1978 to 1987. That union also produced two children (one of whom is actor/son Colin Hanks).
Hanks also won back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actor for his roles in Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994). He was the youngest ever recipient of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award on June 12, 2002.
Hanks claims to be a relative of James Hanks, one of several possible fathers of Nancy Hanks, mother of United States president Abraham Lincoln. A map of his family tree showing the purported connection can be found in the
External links section.
-
Filmography >>
Table of Content
Latest Film News
Latest news on Tom Hanks
EuropePaul Harris: Washington prepares a record party for Obama
The sound of hammers was ringing out on the steps of the Capitol last week as workers built the wooden platform on which Barack Obama will be sworn in as America's first black President.The viewing area around the stage, which is rising slowly at the end of Washington's famous Mall, contains some of the most sought after seating in the world. Those lucky enough to be admitted will be the privileged witnesses of an inauguration ceremony set to be the biggest and most celebrated in American history. As she watched last week, local office worker Kara Brown summed up the thoughts of most DC natives: 'It is going to be a really great party.'As many as five million people are expected to descend on Washington on 20 January to watch the era of President George W Bush come to an end and celebrate the swearing in of Obama as the country's 44th President. That kind of attendance will dwarf the previous record of 1.2 million who came to see Lyndon Johnson take the oath of office in 1965. About one million were at John F Kennedy's inauguration despite a blanket of snow. Many of those coming are eager to hear Obama's inaugural speech, which is expected to rival Martin Luther King's address on the Mall at the height of the civil rights struggle in 1963. 'Obama will have to live up to his own reputation. That will be the challenge. This is going to be an unbelievably historic moment for America,' said Bruce Gronbeck, an expert in political rhetoric at the University of Iowa.But the history of the occasion is just one part of the inauguration ritual, when America indulges in the sort of political theatre and ceremony more associated with the monarchies of 'Old Europe'. The days around the inauguration are rapidly turning into an enormous bonanza of celebrations, fancy balls and celebrity-laden events that will briefly make the normally staid capital city into one of the world's great party towns. 'It is an amazing and wonderful piece of ritual drama,' said Jim Bendat, author of the book Democracy's Big Day, which studies the history of the ceremony.Despite the fact that Obama's term of office will begin in the middle of two foreign wars and a huge economic crisis, there seems little sign that the event will be anything but a huge shindig. 'Those several million people visiting the city to watch this are going to want to do something else besides just stand in the cold and watch a parade. They are going to want to have a good time,' said Bendat. That will not be hard. The city council has passed special rules allowing bars to stay open until 5am in the days surrounding the inauguration. There will be scores of balls and parties to attend. They range from the huge ball that Obama himself will host as the newly minted president, to ones put on by individual states or industries. Music television channel MTV will probably hold the most celebrity-laden event with its own ball. Washington will temporarily outshine New York and Los Angeles as it is flooded with celebrities and the paparazzi who stalk them. Those expected to come to Washington include Oprah Winfrey, Ashley Judd, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks and a host of others. Perhaps one of the most unusual events will be hosted by a black businessman called Earl Stafford, who has splashed out $1m to take over the entire Marriott hotel, and serve $200,000 worth of food to mainly disadvantaged people, such as the ill, the poor and wounded veterans. The city's hotels were booked out weeks ago, often going for vastly inflated rates of more than $1,000 a night. Rooms in cities as far away as Charleston, West Virginia, Richmond in Virginia and Baltimore in Maryland have also sold out. There has been a booming market in private houses rented to visitors for as much as $20,000 a week. Just like Obama's election campaign, which drew huge crowds, the inauguration reveals the almost magnetic power of a man many have already come to see as a historic figure. That makes the task of giving his first speech as President all the more difficult. Despite the excesses of the inauguration, America is in deep crisis both at home and abroad. While Obama is certain to make at least a nod towards his unique position as America's first black President, political analysts will be more concerned with what he has to say about the future direction of American policy. 'He'll talk mainly about domestic issues, like the economic crisis, and also try to announce to the world that America is taking a new direction,' Gronbeck predicted. But, while the pundits pore over every word in Obama's speech, the millions flooding the streets of Washington will be forgetting the political troubles of the country and making the most of an American feelgood moment that will be remembered for decades to come.Obama White HouseUnited Statesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Published: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:05:20 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the articleEuropeAsk Hadley: Why do shop mirrors make me look thinner?
Why do I look thinner in the mirrors of some shops' fitting rooms than others? Sometimes I feel like I am at the fairground, not in a shop on Oxford Street. Daphne Eliot, by emailAnd that is just where you're going wrong, Daph. Oxford Street is a fairground now. Come one, come all, and see the unique freaks who can still afford to shop in this country! See the Russian billionaire's "close friend" head down New Bond Street in search of Gucci! Marvel at the bonused-up banker's daughter as she heads straight to the designer handbags section of Selfridges! Gasp at the footballer's wife shopping as if on amphetamines at Topshop! Your fairground reference is apt in another way, too. Obviously, everyone's first socio-cultural fairground touchstone is the movie Big, the seminal film that marked the last of Tom Hanks' era of greatness (Splash, Bachelor Party) before slipping into smug tedium (Saving Private Ryan, The Da Vinci Code). It was at a fairground, of course, that little Josh Baskin was transformed from child to overgrown child by the unforgettable Zoltar the Magnificent. Well, many shop mirrors work in a similar way, altering one's physical form beyond all recognition. Certainly one's mother can't believe it (your mother tells you that actually your legs are much stumpier than you seem to think and really, dear, have you not thought about heels? Mrs Baskin - the glorious Mercedes Ruehl - threw Big Josh out), and one's friends go along with it, but mainly out of kindness. ("No, honestly, you can totally work the high waist"; Josh doesn't seem to have any other friends.) Of course, there are benefits: you feel good about yourself, you get to have sex with your rival's grumpy girlfriend and do the piano dance - oh, sorry, your question and Big's plot are beginning to elide in my mind. But the perils outweigh the plusses: you, Daphne, might end up buying something that in the cold, non-funny-mirror light of day, makes you resemble a banana; Josh discovered that he, um, I actually can't remember why he went back to being a kid (he probably missed Mercedes, which is understandable).And, to be fair, you can't blame the shops for resorting to some wibbly-wobbly mirrors. Hell, they're so desperate for some custom now they'd tell you that the clothes cure cancer if they thought they could get away with it. Actually, that's a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) for a House of Fraser window display. A Daily Mail headline writer could design it, perhaps, using that ever popular Daily Mail question mark: Can These Clothes Cure Cancer? I can see it already, illustrated by a photo of someone quite attractive who may or may not have had the illness at some point in their lives. Quick, Paul Dacre, take out a copyright or they'll all be at it!Why do models all look like freaks - aren't they supposed to be beautiful? Marcus, by emailInspired by the above thoughts regarding the Daily Mail, I have decided that this column today should take that paper and all of its journalistic methods as its source of inspiration. And so, in true Daily Mail stylee, I have consulted with "unnamed but very intimate - their anonymity should in no way cast doubt on their reliability" sources who have assured me that "the reason models have to be so weird looking is so they look thin in photos because film puts on a lot of weight". What, like 50kg? Because, judging from the way models look these days, that's what our sources seem to think. And so we return to a topic that has been trotted out on this page before - How the Fashion Industry Takes a Theory Beyond Any Semblance of Sense Or Reason. One can see this idea at work when it comes to prices, clothes sizes and many, many clothes in general. But sticking with half-starved models, do male designers just hate women and want to punish them? Unlikely - who would pay their wages then? My other favourite theory came from an impressively unashamed homophobic journalist who once assured me it was because all designers are gay and therefore want the models to look like little boys. Because "gay", apparently, is just a fancy word for "paedophile", you know. The truth is, no one knows how or why this whole thing started. So let's at least look at the bright side: if nothing else, they serve as decided rebuttal to all those annoying people who say fashion is just about dressing to please men. Would an industry predicated on sexual attraction treat breasts as an irritating and unnecessary intrusion on design genius? Do heterosexual men prefer hip bones to hips? I think you see what I'm saying. So, um, like, yay!Fashionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Published: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:04:54 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the article
Sign-up to receive daily news on Tom Hanks by email. See Also:
