Table of Contents
Tom Hanks
Full Name
His full name is Thomas Jeffrey Hanks.1)
Birth
He was born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California.2)
Mother
Janet Marylyn Frager was Tom Hanks' mother. She was a hospital employee with a Portuguese surname.3)
Father
Tom's father was Amos Mefford Hanks, who worked as a chef. Amos was perhaps eight or nine years old when he observed Tom's grandfather being slain in a brawl.4)
Divorced Parents
Amos and Janet separated when Tom was about four years old, in 1960. Tom claims that by the age of ten, he had lived in ten different residences.5)
Jim Hanks
Jim Hanks, Tom's younger brother, is also an actor. In fact, their voices and physical appearances are so similar that Jim doubled for Tom in Forrest Gump and acts as a vocal substitute for Sheriff Woody in Toy Story spinoffs and video games.6)
Larry Hanks
Larry Hanks, his other brother, is an entomologist who teaches bugs at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.7)
Abraham Lincoln
Tom's third cousin four times removed is Abraham Lincoln. Abraham's mother was Nancy Hanks.8)
Other Family Connections
He is also connected to George Clooney, Walt Disney, and Mr. Rogers, according to IMDB.9)
Elizabeth Hanks
Elizabeth Hanks, his daughter, appears in Forrest Gump. She's one of the schoolgirls that informs young Forrest he can't sit with them on the bus.10)
Colin Hanks
Colin Hanks, Tom's eldest son, is a prominent actor in his own right. He has acted in films such as Orange County, Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005), and Oliver Stone's W., as well as TV programs such as The Good Guys, Fargo, and Dexter.11)
Chet Hanks
Tom's other son and Colin's half-brother is Chet Hanks. Chet has appeared in Greyhound, Empire, and Shameless alongside his father.12)
Education
Tom attended Chabot College in California before moving to California State University, Sacramento to study drama. He dropped out of college when an internship at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland developed into a three-year employment.13)
Ron Howard
His performance in a Happy Days episode (“A Case of Revenge”) in 1982 sparked a friendship with Ron Howard, who went on to direct him in five films.14)
Family Ties
Tom Hanks also starred as Elyse's drunken brother Ned in three episodes of Family Ties.15)
Bosom Buddies
Bosom Buddies, a sitcom about the escapades of two males dressed in drag in order to live in a cheap apartment for ladies, was her first leading role. The show aired for two seasons beginning in 1980, and not only did it establish his career, but it also introduced him to his future wife Rita Wilson, who starred in the show's 26th episode, “All You Need is Love”.16)
Director
That Thing You Do! and Larry Crowne are two films written and directed by Thomas Jeffrey Hanks.17)
Screenwriter
He authored the screenplay for Greyhound as well as the short film Electric City in 2012. He also contributed to one episode of Band of Brothers and a couple episodes of From the Earth to the Moon.18)
None But the Lonely Heart
Tom Hanks also featured in and directed “None But the Lonely Heart”, a 1992 Tales from the Crypt episode starring Frances Sternhagen, Treat Williams, Henry Gibson, and Sugar Ray Leonard.19)
Producer
Mamma Mia!, Evan Almighty, Where the Wild Things Are, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding are among the films in which Tom Hanks is credited as a producer or executive producer but does not appear, as is the HBO miniseries John Adams.20)
Headline
Tom's Oscar acceptance speech for Philadelphia, in which he acknowledged a gay instructor, inspired Frank Oz's 1997 film In & Out, starring Kevin Kline.21)
Gaining And Losing Weight
Throughout his career, he has gained and lost weight for various roles. Tom ate a lot of ice cream in order to gain 30 pounds for A League of Their Own, only to lose it in Philadelphia. He also shed almost 50 pounds for Cast Away. Unfortunately, the strain on his health resulted in him being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.22)
Cast Away Halt
Tom, being the everyman, let himself grow chubby for the first scenes of Cast Away. Filming was then halted for a year as he shed pounds and grew his hair out.23)
Peeing In Many Films
Peeing appears in six of his films, including A League of Their Own, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Forrest Gump, The Money Pit, and Apollo 13.24)
Big
A number of well-known actors were considered for the lead role in Big. Harrison Ford, Jeff Bridges, and Steve Guttenberg declined, while at various stages, Robin Williams, John Goodman, Judge Reinhold, Albert Brooks, Michael Keaton, Gary Busey, and Bill Murray were all interested. It was almost given to Robert De Niro, but he demanded a large pay. Because he wasn't yet the elite celebrity he would become, Tom Hanks was ready to work for far less than the established De Niro, and he ended up with the film that transformed the course of his career with his first Oscar nomination.25)
Philadelphia
Philadelphia's producers did not look to Tom Hanks as their first choice. The part was offered to Tim Robbins, Michael Keaton, Andy Garcia, William Baldwin, and Daniel Day-Lewis.26)
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have worked together five times. The legendary director first directed Tom in Saving Private Ryan in 1998, and he has since directed him in four more films: Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), Bridge of Spies (2015), and, most recently, The Post (2017).27)
Not Left-handed
Tom Hanks is NOT a lefty. In truth, Jim Lovell, the astronaut played by Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, is left-handed, but Tom Hanks is not only not left-handed, but also refused to perform the role as a lefty.28)
Asteroid
He has an asteroid named after him, 12818 Tomhanks.29)
Typewriter Fan
Tom Hanks like typewriters and discusses them extensively in the beautiful and interesting documentary California Typewriter, as well as in an NPR interview. He allegedly possesses over 250 typewriters.30)